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PEACE WITH HONOUR 


Works of 

Sidney C. Grier 

The Warden of the Marches 

Peace with Honour 

Like Another Helen 

His Excellency's English Governess 

In Furthest Ind 

A Crowned Queen 

Kings of the East 

The Prince of the Captivity 

L. C PAGE & COMPANY 
200 Summer Street^ Boston^ Mass* 


tatc Wit'^ 

* Honour 

By 

SYDNEY C. GRIER t v 

AUTHOR OF “A CROWNED QUEEN,” 
“THE WARDEN OF THE MARCHES,” 
“IN FURTHEST IND,” Etc. 



\A \\^Ck. (3 



BOSTON 

L. C. PAGE ^ COMPANY 


MDCCCCII 



Copyright, igo2 
By I,. C. Page & Company 

(Incorporated) 


9 & fo i 3 

UD 3 , 

Published June, 1902 


TO 


E. EG. L., 

IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
OP MUCH KIND ADVICE 


AND HELP. 



CONTENTS. 


CHAP. PAOE 

I. “should auld acquaintance be forgot?" . 1 

II. A COMMUNITY OP INTERESTS , . . 14 

III. FELLOW-TRAVELLERS . . . .29 

IV. AGAINST HIS WILL . . . , . 43 

V. ACROSS THE FRONTIER . . . ,58 

VI. AN OFFER OF CO-OPERATION . , .72 

VII. THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED . . .86 

VIII. EAST MEETS WEST . . , . .103 

IX. STRAINED RELATIONS . . . .120 

X. CAUGHT AND CAGED. .... 137 

XI. THE RANKS ARE THINNED .... 154 

XII. THE STANDARD-BEARER FALLS , , . 169 

XIII. A PROFESSIONAL SUMMONS . . . .186 

XIV. AN ULTIMATUM ..... 203 

XV. ONE CROWDED HOUR . , . .218 

XVI. A CESSATION OP HOSTILITIES , . . 237 

XVII. POINTS OF VIEW ..... 265 


VIU 


CONTENTS, 


XVIII. RETREAT CUT OFF . . . 

• 


• 

274 

XIX. THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION 

• 

• 

• 

293 

XX. FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND’S 

SAKE 

f 

• 

312 

XXI. FOR A CONSIDERATION 

• 

« 

• 

330 

XXII. A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN 

• • 

4 

9 

349 

XXIII. HARDLY WON 


9 

• 

368 

XXIV. VIS MEDICATRIX 

* 

% 

• 

388 

EPILOGUE , 


n 


412 




t 


tv-V 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


CHAPTEE I. 

“should auld acquaintance be forgot?” 

“Now, Dick, I want to trot you out this afternoon, so 
please put on your smartest clothes, and your best com- 
pany manners, and your most winning smile.” 

“ Has your majesty any more commands ? I was under 
the impression that I was excused further duty to-day, on 
condition of dining out with you to-night and to-morrow 
night.” 

“ This is not duty, it is pleasure — or ought to he.” 

“ That sounds more inviting. Who gets the pleasure ? ” 

“I do, if you will come, and I will promise you some as 
well.” 

“Your generosity exceeds my highest expectations, 
but I should like particulars before I make any rash 
promises. I have just settled down here comfortably for 
the afternoon.” 

“ Dick ! ” — Mabel North dashed at her brother, robbed 
him of his cigar, and, snatching away his newspaper, set 
her foot upon it — “ if you imagine I allow you to smoke 
in the conservatory merely in order that you may shirk 

A 


2 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


coming out with me, you are mistaken. Now, will you 
come? Quick, or I shall let this thing go out!” 

“ I give in. Allow me to rescue that cigar. Now, per- 
haps, you will graciously intimate what it is you want me 
to do?” 

“ I want you to see something of the serious side of my 
life. What do you really know about me ? You would be 
sorry some day if you didn’t come this afternoon. When 
you heard I was no more, you would shake your head and 
say, ‘ Ah, poor girl ; what a frivolous butterfly she was ! * 
I wish to guard against misconceptions of that kind.” 

“Oh, well, I only hope your conscience will prick you 
when I am gone again. When you think of me at Kubhet- 
ul-Haj, sweltering all day and freezing all night, you will 
say, ‘ Ah, poor fellow ! I wish I had treated him better 
while he was here. Never a moment’s peace did I give 
him ; it was nothing but drive and rush from morning to 
night.’ ” 

“ Don’t pretend to be bored and hlas^, Dick. You know 
that you have come back from the wilderness with a very 
healthy appetite for innocent gaiety. If you wanted us to 
think that seven years on the Khemistan Frontier had 
made you a misanthrope, your face would belie you. I do 
like to see a young man enjoying himself thoroughly at a 
social gathering, and that pleasure I have whenever I take 
you out.” 

“ This is adding insult to injury, Mab. Can’t you let a 
man alone ? ” 

“ Not when he’s my brother, and I have got him all to 
myself after not having seen him for years. Do come with 
me, Dick, there’s a good boy; I want you particularly. 
Besides, you owe a duty to other people. Society looks 
favourably upon you, and it is only grateful for you to 
bask in its smiles. All the girls T know have said to me. 


“SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT?” 


3 


‘ Mornin’. Brother’s cornin’ home, isn’t he 1 Awf’ly plucky 
chap ! Bring him in on our “at-home” day. Just adore 
soldiers.’ Then their mothers come up purringly, and say, 
‘And so your dear brother is coming home. Miss ITorth? 
You must be sure and bring him round to see me. I am 
so much interested in young men. Atid will he wear his 
Victoria Cross'? It is the dream of my life to see one.”’ 

“ I hope you don’t expect me to take the precious thing 
with me in my pocket and exhibit it? There are some 
things a man can’t bring himself to do, even for your sake, 
Queen Mab.” 

“ !N'o, dear boy ; I won’t try you so far. I am not a 
despotic monarch. That means that you are going to be 
good and come with me, doesn’t it ? Then I will reward 
you by saying that I don’t want you to go to an ‘ at-home ’ 
or anything of that kind this afternoon, but merely to the 
hospital.” 

“ The hospital ? ” 

“ Yes, the Women’s Hospital, to which I go twice a-week 
to read and sing to the patients. It is a great occasion 
there to-day — the anniversary of the opening, so that I can 
take you in, and the poor things are all longing to see 
you.” 

“Why, what do they know about me?” 

“What I have told them, of course. Do you know, 
Dick, I sometimes feel as though I had no business to be 
so well and rich and happy among so many sufferers. It 
seems as though they must hate me, or, at any rate, feel 
that I can’t sympathise with them. And then, when you 
were shut up in Fort Rahmat-Ullah, and uncle and I were 
so fearfully anxious, I really couldn’t go on just as usual, 
and I told the women about you, and they w&re so nice. 
Of their own accord they asked the clergyman, who comes 
and holds a service in the wards on Sundays, to mention 


4 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


your name in the prayers, and they watched the papers for 
every scrap of news about you. When at last we heard 
how you had got through the enemy and brought help, I 
took the paper to the hospital, but I couldn’t read a bit. 
I simply broke down and cried like a great baby, and the 
women were in a dreadful state of anxiety. At last I gave 
the account to one of them, and she read it aloud in a high, 
cracked voice, making the most horrible hash of the names, 
and the rest all cried too. They have regarded you as their 
personal property ever since, and when they heard of all 
your honours, they were as much pleased as I was. ‘Your 
brother ’ave gort permoted, miss ! ’ was what they all called 
out to me when I came in one day, and I never had such a 
piece of work in my life as when I tried to explain to them 
what brevet rank was. I’m afraid even now they are under 
the impression that you have been very badly treated, and 
defrauded of the promotion you ought to have received, and 
they sympathise with you very deeply. Several of them 
have pictures of you, cut out of the illustrated papers, 
folded up in their lockers, and bring them out to show 
people, and all the new patients are carefully instructed 
in the history of the presiding genius. ‘That’s our Miss 
North’s brother,’ the old ones tell them, and then all the 
details follow. Now, Dick, you will come, won’t you 1 ” 

“If you really want me, old girl,” and Dick threw 
down his paper without a murmur. “ I feel as if I owed 
you something for the horrible scare you got when you 
heard we were cut off, and so I’ll do violence to my natural 
modesty to the extent of coming and exhibiting myself 
to your old women.” 

Mabel North was not a little proud of her brother as 
she conducted him into the hospital an hour or so later. 
He looked such a splendid manly fellow, she thought, 
with the glamour of his past exploits surrounding him 


SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT? 


5 


like an aureole, that she wondered how other women could 
care to display their wretched dandified relatives beside him. 
In the fulness of her satisfaction, she marched him through 
various rooms and corridors, and presented him to a number 
of resplendent ladies who appeared to he receiving the guests, 
before there was any question of going up-stairs to visit the 
wards. Then she was seized upon by a suave person of 
business-like appearance, who turned out to be the secretary, 
for a few minutes’ confidential talk, and Dick, rather be- 
wildered by his experiences, and wondering why a hospital 
should employ a lady as secretary, took refuge in the society 
of a man he had met at his club. 

Isn’t this gathering slightly — er — informal 1 ” he asked. 
“ Don’t the doctors, or 'governors, or whatever they call the 
authorities of the place, show up at all 1 All the men here 
look as though they had been brought by their lady friends.” 

Brought ? ” said the other man, “ that’s it exactly. My 
wife brought me, your sister brought you, and Mountchesnay 
and the Archdeacon have been brought by their female 
relatives in just the same way. We are here on sufferance, 
don’t you know, just to open our minds and enlarge our 
views.” 

“ Is it a ladies’ day, then 1 ” 

“bTo, but the ladies boss the show here. Don’t you 
know that this is the hospital of the future, manned entirely 
by women ? The tyrant man is in his rightful sphere here, 
quite at a discount. They think nothing of him. Why, 

. there’s not a man on the premises but the porter, and he is 
there rather to overawe the relations of the patients than to 
help the ladies. But do you mean to say that Miss North 
brought you here without explaining the state of things ? 
It wasn’t fair ; she might have given you a shock.” 

“But who are the hurra mems — the great ladies — in the 
other room ? ” 


6 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ The doctors, ladies of European reputation. The one 
who shook hands with you first fought the whole battle for 
the medical women.” 

“ I didn’t know that you were mixed up with all this 
kind of thing, Mah,” said Dick, as Mabel, having finished 
her talk with the secretary, turned to look for him. 

“ All what kind of thing 1 ” 

“ Why, all this rot about lady doctors, and women’s hos- 
pitals, and so on.” 

“ Then you don’t read my letters, Dick. I have told you 
about it again and again. But I have another surprise for 
you presently. Let us come up-stairs now.” 

In the wards Dick made a very good impression. None 
of the patients would be satisfied without a close view of 
him, and Mabel conducted him from bed to bed, and intro- 
duced him to all her friends. When he had duly admired 
the decorations, congratulated the patients on their healthful 
looks, promised to send in some illustrated papers, and in- 
quired whether he could possibly obtain admittance to the 
hospital himself if he fell ill, he was in high favour. This 
inquiry was the stereotyped jest, which was expected as a 
matter of course from all the male visitors to the hospital, 
and none of them ever failed to make it, so that its utter- 
ance was received with approving laughter. 

“ Ah, you gentlemen don’t know what a blessin’ this ’ere 
’orspital is to us, a-makin’ your jokes, and all,” said an old 
woman, with a high cracked voice, the patient, as Mabel 
explained, who had read aloud to the rest the account of 
Dick’s solitary expedition for the relief of Fort Eahmat- 
Ullah. “Not but what I ain’t been as well treated as I ’ad 
reason to expeck. My doctor’s agoin’ out to furrin parts, 
to the pore ’eathens, she says. ‘ You may as well stay and 
see the last of me, miss,’ I says to ’er ; but she says, ‘ You 
can go to a gentleman doctor when you are ill, Mrs Wake, 


“SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT?” 


7 


but them pore ’eathen women can’t, so I’m wanted there 
wuss.’ Oh, there you are, miss ! I was a-tellin’ this gentle- 
man about you.” 

Mabel looked up quickly as a lady in soft flowing robes 
of wine-red cashmere glanced in at the begarlanded doorway, 
and nodded to Mrs Wake. 

“ We shall meet to-morrow evening, Mab,” she said, see- 
ing the visitors. 

“Wait a minute. Dr Georgie,” said Mabel, hastily; “I 
want to introduce my brother afresh. I am afraid he is 
forgetting old friends. Major North, Miss Georgia Keel- 
ing, M.D.” 

“ Miss Keeling ! Is it possible ? ” Dick met the gaze of 
a pair of frank dark eyes, which were scanning his face with 
a look of friendly interest, and his thoughts flew back to the 
time which had elapsed between his leaving Sandhurst and 
obtaining his appointment to the Indian Staff Corps years 
ago. He had spent some months at home, to the great dis- 
gust of his uncle, the general, who vowed that this spell of 
idleness would ruin him for life, but he did nothing worse 
than fall in love with his sister’s greatest friend. Georgia 
lived only a few doors off, and she and Mabel always walked 
to the high school together, a fact of which Dick was fully 
aware when he took it into his head to offer Mabel his 
escort morning by morning. The offer was accepted with 
some hesitation, for both Mabel and Georgia had reached 
what might be called the age of pure reason, and objected 
on principle to “ boys and nonsense,” but Dick was useful 
in carrying their books, and they could always snub him if 
he talked too much. Mabel was not without pride in the 
effect produced on the other girls by Dick’s attendance, but 
Georgia was absolutely indifferent to the honour conferred 
upon her, and Dick left England at last with the rueful 
conviction that the lady of his love was still quite heart- 


8 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


whole, and never regarded him in any other light than that 
of Mabel’s brother. Now he saw her again, and her eyes 
met his as calmly and freely as of old. 

“You have not forgotten the old days, then?” she said, 
pleasantly. 

“ I am afraid you haven’t,” he answered. “ I must have 
bored you horribly. I know you and Mab always wanted 
to discuss your lessons, or the methods of the different 
masters, and momentous subjects of that kind, whereas I 
used to try to intrude my own little frivolous interests, 
which were invariably frowned down. It served me 
right.” 

Poor Dick ! He had not spoken so lightly when he bade 
Georgia farewell, after a vain attempt to obtain from her a 
flower, a glove, anything she had touched, as a keepsake. 
She had looked him through with her clear eyes and 
observed chillingly that she disliked foolishness, and he 
broke away from her with a heart full of pain and anger, 
and on his lips the Disraelian prophecy, “ Some day I will 
make you listen to me ! ” To work for Georgia, to make 
himself more worthy of Georgia, had been his ruling im- 
pulse during his early years in India, and there was always 
before his eyes the faint possibility that when he returned 
home great and famous, his stubborn lady’s heart might be 
touched at last. And now he had returned, not only 
famous, but also free from the trammels of his early and 
hopeless adoration — and Georgia was not at all affected by 
the fact. Years of unremitting work had turned Dick’s 
thoughts into a different channel. He was a soldier now, 
and his professional instincts were paramount, but still, he 
would have liked Georgia to recognise the change. She did 
not appear to notice anything, and he had a lurking sus- 
picion that if she had done so, the realisation would not ' 
have troubled her. 


“SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT?” 9 

“ And so you are going to India, like all the young ladies 
in these days?” he said, carelessly, recalling what he had 
just heard from Mrs Wake, not without some idea of 
piquing Miss Keeling by the suggestion that her latest 
development had not surprised him in the least. 

“No, not to India,” she answered. “I am going to 
Kubhet-ul-Haj.” 

“What, with Sir Dugald Haigh’s Ethiopian Mission? 
So am I.” 

“Yes, Mabel has told me. What a pity she can’t come 
too!” 

“ Oh, Mab hasn’t set up as a free-lance yet.” 

“ Have you, then 1 I had an idea that you were going as 
one of the Mission. Even I have a professional status.” 

“ I am the military member — aide-de-camp to the Chief, 
or something of the kind, I believe. You are the surgeon, 
I presume ? ” 

“ Not exactly. The King of Ethiopia’s principal wife is 
nearly blind, and he has begged that a lady doctor may 
accompany the Mission to Kubbet-ul-Haj, and attend the 
Queen while Sir Dugald Haigh remains there. Lady Haigh 
is rather glad to find a companion, and I am delighted to 
have such a chance.” 

“ The Mission is highly honoured,” said Dick, not quite 
pleasantly. 

Miss Keeling looked at him in some surprise. 

“ It makes it much pleasanter that you are going too,” 
she said. “ My short Indian experience has taught me how 
delightful it is to find old friends in a foreign country.” 

“ You are too kind,” said Dick, stiffly. “ I’m afraid you 
overrate my powers of — er — entertainment ; but, of course, 
I shall be delighted to do all I can to make the journey less 
tedious.” 

She looked at him again. Was it possible that the man 


10 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


was such an arrant coxcomb as to imagine that she was 
doing her best to lead up to a resumption of the old state of 
affairs between them 1 Could he be trying to warn her off, 
or were his infelicitous remarks due only to ill-temper 
But why should he be ill-tempered 1 In any case, it was 
clear that Major North, V.C., was a very different person 
from the boy who had gone to India fifteen years before, 
and the change was not an improvement. There was the 
slightest possible touch of hauteur in Georgians manner as 
she turned away, saying, with a graciousness which made 
Dick writhe with something of his old feeling of insig- 
nificance in her presence — 

“ You must not think that I have forgotten to congratu- 
late you on your splendid exploit. Major North. I had 
hoped to be able to hear something about it from yourself, 
but no doubt Mabel will tell me all I want to know.” 

She passed slowly down the corridor, and Dick, watching 
the trailing folds of her gown out of sight, felt a sudden and 
unreasoning rush of anger. He tried to think that he was 
angry with her, but in his heart he knew that it was with 
himself. As for Mabel, who had watched the scene at first 
with amusement, but afterwards with growing concern, she 
was speechless until she had conducted him hastily through 
the remaining wards of the hospital, and hurried him out 
at the front entrance. Then she turned upon him and said 
in a tone of concentrated disgust — 

“Well, Dick, I never thought I should have to be 
absolutely ashamed of you ! ” 

As Dick made no reply, but walked on with frowning 
brows, swinging his stick viciously, she continued to im- 
prove the occasion. 

“ Talk of the fury of a woman scorned I iVs nothing to 
a man’s. If you can’t forgive Georgia for refusing you 
fifteen years ago, one would scarcely expect to find you 


"SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT T’ 11 


eager to show her that she never did a wiser thing in her 
life.” 

" I believe you imagine that I am in love with her still,” 
said Dick, with great calmness. 

“ It looks like it, doesn’t it 1 ” retorted Mabel. 

“Then you are mistaken. I don’t care a rap for her. 
What upset me was that she ignored everything so com- 
pletely. It was all foolishness, of course, but stiU it did 
happen, and nothing can blot it out. A man can’t meet 
a woman that he has cared for in that way as though he 
had never seen her before. Only women can do that kind 
of thing.” 

“ A woman would know better than to behave like a cad, 
at any rate.” 

“ I should never let a man say such a thing as that to 
me, Mabel.” 

“ Then it is a good thing that there is a woman to do it. 
The fact is, Dick, you hoped that Georgia would have 
changed her mind during these years, and that she would 
want you when she could not have you. That is a nice, 
manly, chivalrous way of trying to get your revenge on her, 
isn’t it ? And when she is willing to forget all that foolish- 
ness, and to meet you as an old friend, you are angry, 
instead of being thankful that she can bring herself to 
overlook it. You really were fearfully silly in those days, 
Dick, and bothered her horribly. Why can’t you let it 
drop, if she cani You say you don’t care for her now. 
Why you should expect her to care for you, I don’t 
know.” 

“ I don’t expect her to care for me,” said Dick, doggedly. 

“ I should hope not, when you are so fickle.” 

“ I don’t know why you should call me fickle. A man’s 
tastes must change as he grows older.” 

“ Exactly. But why should you expect Georgia to change 


12 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


in accordance with them? She is just what you might 
have guessed she would be.” 

“I detest that type of woman.” 

“I see. You would have liked Georgia to develop 
entirely on your lines. When you find that she has a 
character and a will of her own, you don’t like it.” 

“I like a woman to be a woman. These lady doctors 
are not womanly.” 

“ Indeed ! Who is the best judge of what is womanly, 
you or a woman ? ” 

‘‘Of course,” Dick went on, disregarding the question, 
“it is their business, and not mine. But you will find, 
Mab, that men like a woman to be gentle and soft and 
clinging, looking to them for protection.” 

“ Men ! ” said Mabel, contemptuously. “ Who cares what 
men like 1 ” 

“Well, a good many women seem to think rather a lot 
of it. No one wants a woman to be brave and self-reliant. 
Now Miss Keeling’s manner — it implied that she could look 
after herself, and had no need of a protector — and yet she 
was not putting on side — it was simply a steady sort of 
self-dependence. That’s all very well, but it isn’t what I 
like in a woman. And she looked me over, just as a man 
might. It made me feel quite queer.” 

“ Yes, you like a woman’s eyes to drop before yours, as a 
sort of unconscious tribute to your greatness and your glory. 
A man may look at a woman with the calmest insolence, 
but she must only steal a glance at his face when he isn’t 
looking. I’m afraid India has corrupted you, Dick.” 

“ What in the world has India got to do with it? Your 
remarks don’t seem to apply to any part of India with 
which I am acquainted.” 

“Very well, I withdraw them, then. I will only say 
that before you went there you preferred to regard woman 


“SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT?” 13 


as an angel high above you ; now you object to think of her 
even as an equal.” 

“ I knew we were bound to come round to that at last. 
"R^very man makes an idiot of himself some time in his life, 
hut it’s not fair to bring up his ravings against him when 
he has returned to his right mind. And why should you 
drag in these stale controversies ? The women will always 
settle the matter to their own satisfaction among them- 
selves, and the men will laugh over it in the smoking-room 
and say : ‘ It pleases them to think so, and as long as they 
do no harm they may as well he let alone.’ ” 

“ There you are again, Dick, with your nasty cynical 
philosophy ! I am sure frontier life has not been good 
for you. You want educating, and I rather think that 
Georgia is the person to undertake the task, if you haven’t 
disgusted her too deeply. For your own sake, my dear boy, 
I should advise you to try and appease her. It is not every 
man of whom she is willing to make a friend.” 

“ Stuff ! ” said Dick, ungratefully. “ When I want friends 
I prefer men. You forget that it’s a case of ‘ once bit, twice 
shy,’ with me.” 

“ Oh, very well ; don’t blame me if you turn out a horrid 
old bear, always saying nasty things about women, because 
you don’t know a scrap about them. You will soon see that 
Georgia has no difficulty in finding friends. She might have 
married hundreds of times.” 

“ This seems to import a new element into the discussion. 
Why are these hundreds of presumably unhappy men intro- 
duced ? Is it to show the danger of seeking Miss Keeling’s 
friendship ? I have already had experience in that direction, 
you know,” 

“It was merely a piece of historical retrospect — and a 
warning for you. Don’t say that I let you go to Kubhet- 
ul-Haj blindfold. The man who would suit Georgia must 


14 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


be at the head of some big hospital, so that she can see 
plenty of good operations,” and Mabel smiled gleefully at 
the disgust depicted on her brother’s face. 


CHAPTEK II. 

A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS. 

About noon the next day Dick Horth left his uncle’s 
house with the intention of going to his club. It was a 
rough windy morning, with occasional scuds of rain, and 
when one of these overtook Dick as he was crossing the 
street, he found to his disgust that from the force of habit 
he had come out without an umbrella. Taking refuge in a 
doorway, for the shower proved to be a sharp one, he dis- 
covered that his asylum was already in the possession of a 
lady, in whom he quickly recognised Miss Keeling. She 
was looking very smart in a business-like ulster and a neat 
little felt hat, from the brim of which the rain-drops were 
falling on her wind-blown hair, for the umbrella she held 
in her hand — a mere mass of metal spikes and shreds of 
silk — could only be called an umbrella by courtesy, and had 
evidently given way before the force of the gale. 

“ Any port in a storm ! ” she said, merrily, as she shook 
hands with Dick. 

“ I am sorry I can’t offer to lend you an umbrella,” he 
remarked, “ for I am worse off than yourself.” 

“Ko, I think you are more sensible,” she replied, “for 
an umbrella is sure to, be turned inside out in this wind. 
You see I am prepared for rain, and I have no fear of get- 


A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS. 


15 


ting wet, but I do dislike it when the rain-drops trickle 
down my neck.” 

“ Pray allow me to run across and get you an umbrella 
from one of those shops over there,” he said stiffly, annoyed 
to find his resentment against her melting under the influ- 
ence of her friendly manner. 

“ Oh no, thank you, I couldn’t think of it,” she replied, 
surveying him carefully, and taking due note of his curly- 
brimmed hat, his long coat, the huge carnation in his 
buttonhole, and the immaculate spats protecting his equally 
spotless boots. “You are not quite dressed for running 
anywhere, are you P’ 

The resentment returned promptly in full force. 

“ I am sorry my appearance is displeasing to you,” he said, 
in a tone which he tried vainly to make a light and sportive 
one. 

“ Oh, but it isn’t at all. It is most correct — unimpeach- 
ably correct.” 

“ Then what is the matter with it, if I may ask 1 ” 

“I don’t want to hurt your feelings.” 

“ Thank you, I think my feelings are proof against in- 
jury.” 

“ It is only that I was thinking it was a pity to expose 
such a complete get-up to the dangers of a muddy walk. A 
hansom would have taken you straight from General Korth’s 
door to your destination. I could imagine you a walking 
advertisement of the Army and Navy Club, and why aren’t 
you gracing one of the windows there, as a sort of sample, 
you know, to show the kind of goods within 'i ” 

“ Bother the girl ! She sees I don’t like her, and she is 
taking it out of me,” was his mental comment, as he glanced 
at her composed face and caught a twinkle of fun in her 
eyes. Aloud he said, rather lamely, “ You don’t know 
what a luxury it is to be able to array oneself in the gar- 


16 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


merits of civilisation once more, after spending years, as one 
might say, in uniform. But I see the rain has stopped. 
May I call you a cab, or walk with you 1 ” 

“ Oh no, thanks ; I am only going to one of those shops.” 

“ But you will allow me to see you across the street ? ” 

This time his escort was not refused, and he left her at 
the entrance of the shop to which she was bound, and in 
which, as he noticed with a shudder, the wares displayed 
were chiefly surgical instruments. As he lifted his hat and 
turned away, he found his state of mind not at all in accord- 
ance with the serene calm of his destination. Everything 
Miss Keeling had said seemed to be rankling in his breast, 
and he anathematised her mentally as he walked. What 
business had the girl to say such things? Kay, rather, 
what did it signify if she did say them ? Why in the world 
should it affect him ? And yet, here he was wasting his 
time and spoiling his short leave at home by thinking about 
her. It was bad enough that they were doomed to be fel- 
low-travellers all the way to Kubbet-ul-Haj, but at least he 
would dismiss her from his mind while he was in England ; 
and by way of making a beginning he would burn that 
photograph which he had cherished so long. 

The consciousness of this heroic resolution upheld him 
during the day, and when he returned home to dress for 
dinner his first action was to take the photograph out of the 
drawer of his desk in which it had been wont to repose ever 
since he had stolen it out of Mabel’s album. He held it in 
his hand with mingled feelings, remembering the time when 
he had lifted it out and looked at it reverentially every 
night, although of late years it had remained altogether 
undisturbed. Georgia appeared in it with short hair, which 
made her look like a very nice boy. Dick remembered that 
Mabel had come home from school one day in tears because, 
in the ardour of preparing for the London Matriculation, 


A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS. 


17 


Georgia had had all her hair cut off. He remembered also 
how he had begged, as urgently as he dared, for one of the 
severed locks, and how Georgia had refused it with disdain. 
In those days he was under the impression that it was rather 
pleasant than otherwise to be called “ silly hoy ! ” by Miss 
Keeling’s lips. What a young idiot he must have been ! 
And what a senseless fool he was now, to be recalling the 
absurdities of those past years in this way ! After all, he 
would not burn the photograph, lest he should forget what 
an ass he had once succeeded in making of himself. It 
should occupy its old place still, not for Miss Keeling’s sake, 
hut for auld lang syne, and as a memento and a warning. 

“ Are you nearly ready, Dick 1” said Mabel’s voice at his 
door. “The carriage has come round.” 

Hastily thrusting the photograph back into the desk, 
Dick made his toilet at lightning speed and hurried 
down-stairs. Mabel was waiting in the drawing-room with 
an aggressive expression of resignation, and General North, 
whose gout kept him at home, was fretting and fuming over 
the tardiness of his nephew’s appearance. 

“This is the way in which you young fellows make 
ducks and drakes of all your chances ! ” he remarked, 
irascibly. “ Here you are appointed to this Mission, which 
is a piece of luck for which most men would give their ears, 
and you are late the first time you have to meet your chief. 
In my young days such behaviour would have lost you 
your post, but there’s nothing that can he called discipline 
now.” 

“ And how much happier the world is ! ” said Mabel, 
flippantly, stooping to arrange General North’s footstool 
more comfortably. “ Now take care of yourself, uncle, 
and don’t think of waiting up for us. Come, Dick, we 
must really go.” 

“ I say,” said Dick, as he followed her into the carriage, 
B 


18 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ I wish you would just cram me up a bit about this affair 
to-night. I know that we are to dine with the Egertons, 
and that the Kubbet-ul-Haj people will be there, but who 
the Egertons are, or why they should be mixed up with the 
Mission, I haven’t an idea.” 

“ Dick, if I had such a bad memory as you, I would — 
study somebody’s system of mnemonics, I think. I have 
mentioned the Egertons in my letters again and again. 
Don’t you remember that I pointed out Mrs Egerton to you 
at the hospital yesterday — a pretty, rather worn-looking 
woman, with a black lace dress and pink roses in her 
bonnet 1 ” 

“ I apologise humbly for my forgetfulness. Forgive me, 
and instruct me.” 

“Well, don’t you remember that just after you first went 
out, I told you that Cecil Anstruther, one of our girls at 
the South Central, had taken high honours in the London 
B.A., and we were all so proud of herl She went out to 
Baghdad as governess to the Pasha’s little boy, when Sir 
Dugald Haigh was Eesident there. The Haighs were very 
kind to her, and she became engaged to Lady Haigh’s 
cousin, who was surgeon at the Eesidency. He got into 
trouble in some way with the Turkish Government, and 
had to be sent home, and I believe they were separated 
for a long time. But they were married at last, and 
came home and settled down. Dr Egerton has a large 
property in Homeshire, and sits in Parliament for the 
eastern division.” 

“ What, the member for Adullam 'I ” cried Dick. 

“ Yes, that’s what they call him, because he is said to be 
always in a minority of one. You know how the name 
was fixed upon him ? Of course he was often called by 
it in private conversation, but one day Sir James Mor- 
rell, who is rather absent-minded, had to answer one of 


A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS. 


19 


his questions in the absence of the Secretary for India, 
and in his flurry he alluded to ‘ the honourable member 
for the Adullam division of Homeshire.’ The next week 
‘ Punch ' improved it into ‘ the member for the Cave 
division of Adullam shire,’ and since then it has stuck. 
What do you know about Dr Egerton, Dick?” 

“ Merely that he is one of the faddists who pose as 
authorities on India and the East generally.” 

“ Ah, you should hear Sir Dugald Haigh on that 
point. His sneer is positively terriflc. He can only 
comfort himself by remembering that here, as in other 
cases, the critics of the East are the men who have 
failed in the East.” 

“ Better that than never to have been there at all,” 
said Dick. “ It has struck me more than once that there 
is a good deal of sense in some of Egerton’s crotchets, 
but he destroys the effect by his way of forcing them 
upon people. The things he says would put any one’s 
back up.” 

“Yes, poor Cecil’s life is spent in explaining away his 
blunders and apologising for them. He could do nothing 
without her, for she is such a favourite that she can 
often manage to put things right when he has muddled 
them. Every one wonders that she doesn’t coach him 
beforehand, and teach him to avoid these dreadful favx 
pas; but I know that she does, and that he forgets all 
her advice as soon as he gets excited in debate.” 

“ But how is it that these people are mixed up with 
the Kubbet-ul-Haj affair?” 

“They are great friends of the Haighs, of course, and 
besides, Cecil’s brother is going out as the junior member 
of the Mission. He is a most absurd boy — always going 
wild about something or other — and just now he is 
deeply in love with Kosaline Hervey, the beautiful girl 


20 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


in the picture hat who was with Mrs Egerton yesterday. 
She is to be there to-night, and her sister, and old Mr 
and Mrs Anstruther, Mrs Egerton’s parents, who are 
anxious to see what Sir Dugald is like before confid- 
ing their boy to his care. Then there is Mr Stratford, 
a cousin of Dr Egerton’s and second in command of the 
Mission.” 

“Yes, I know Stratford. We met in Kashmir one year, 
when he was taking his leave in India, and I saw him the 
other day at the Foreign Office. He is a good sort of chap.” 

“You come next in rank, I suppose, and then there is 
the doctor.” 

“Ladies first, please — or what doctor do you mean?” 

“ Dr Headlam, of course, the surgeon of the Mission.” 

“ Oh, I beg your pardon. I was afraid you meant Miss 
Keeling.” 

“ Oh no,” said Mabel, but her face wore a peculiar smile 
as she gathered her cloak around her preparatory to leaving 
the carriage. The reason for her unusual taciturnity became 
evident to Dick a little later, when he found that he was 
expected to take Miss Keeling in to dinner. 

“ You are old friends, I think,” said Mrs Egerton, pleas- 
antly, and Dick perceived by her tone that she imagined 
she had done him a kindness in arranging her guests in this 
way. It was clear that she remembered the old days, even 
if Miss Keeling had forgotten them. But no, doubtless 
Mabel had given her the hint. 

If Dick had only known it, Georgia was in a much softer 
mood to-night, for all day long her conscience had been 
pricking her for her share in the conversation of the morning. 
She was indignant with herself for the things she had said, 
and it did not render them more excusable in her estimation 
that })ique at Dick’s attitude towards her was not by any 
means the sole motive that had actuated her in uttering 


A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS. 


21 


them. What in the world did it signify to her if the hero 
of the Khemistan Frontier chose to make himself look 
absurd in clothes which the idlest stay-at-home of a club- 
lounger could wear with far more pleasure to the beholder 
and satisfaction to himself 1 If the poor man thought that 
he looked well in them, why not leave him to enjoy his 
delusion, instead of rudely shattering his dream, and letting 
him know that his appearance, in the opinion of one person 
who knew him, verged on the ridiculous? Miss Keeling 
felt uncomfortably conscious that, after all, pique had had 
something to do with, at any rate, the terms of her remon- 
strance. She had even been led into vying with her 
opponent in cool rudeness, and for this she could not forgive 
herself. It was no excuse for her that she found most men 
so easy to get on with, when once they had laid aside the 
mock deference or the real antipathy with which they were 
wont to greet the lady doctor on their first introduction to 
her. She could not help knowing, for admiring female 
friends kept her informed of the fact, that it was the 
mingled graciousness and dignity of her manner which con- 
verted these adversaries and scoffers into firm allies and 
champions, and yet she had so far forgotten herself and her 
sense of what was becoming as to chaff Major North on his 
appearance, just as any ordinary fast girl might have done, 
and the fact humiliated her. A younger or less experienced 
woman, feeling as she did, would have precipitated matters 
by an apology, but Georgia was too wise to introduce any 
further complication into her difficulties. There could be 
no advantage in putting herself into North’s power in such 
a way, when it was undeniable that he had invited a 
snubbing by his perplexing conduct the day before. No, 
if he was to be won back to friendliness it must be by 
letting bygones be bygones, and accepting the situation as 
it presented itself. 


22 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Dinner was considerably delayed, owing to the fact that 
the Miss Herveys were late, and Georgia had some time in 
which to try her skill upon Dick. Her task was more 
difficult than she had anticipated, for he manifested an 
abiding resentment which irritated her as being quite out of 
proportion to the circumstances which had called it forth, 
and he answered her only in frigid monosyllables. Georgia 
talked on bravely, resolved not to appear to notice his lack 
of responsiveness, although she could not but feel slightly 
aggrieved by her failure to soften him. When Sir Dugald 
Haigh crossed the room to speak to Dick, and, with an 
apology to Georgia, carried him ofif to be introduced to 
Lady Haigh, she heaved a little sigh. 

“ He was such a nice boy ! ” she said to herself, “ and I 
think he would be nice now, if he would only let his better 
side show. I like his face so much.” She glanced across 
the room at him, and marked appreciatively the thin brown 
face, on which the fair moustache looked almost white, the 
firm chin, the keen grey eyes, and the brow set in the 
habitual frown produced by the constant watching of distant 
objects under a burning sun. “ He looks like a ‘ man and 
a leader of men,’ ” she went on slowly, “ but why should he 
behave in this way? It is so small, so petty, to keep up a 
grudge for so many years, and how could I have done any- 
thing but refuse him ? It would have been absurd to do 
anything else, even if I had cared for him, and he was such 
a boy. He must be at least two years older than I am, 
but I always felt then that he was years younger. At any 
rate, he ought to be grateful to me, instead of sulking like 
this.” 

At this moment a diversion was created by the entrance 
of the beautiful Miss Hervey, a vision of loveliness in rose- 
coloured silk ; while behind her came her sister, a smaller, 
plainer, and, so to speak more shadowy, edition of herself. 


A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS. 


23 


Mabel gave Georgia a look which implied that the young 
lady was by no means averse to making herself the observed 
of all observers in this fashion, but if such was the case, 
her triumph was short, for every one resented the delay 
which had been caused by her non-appearance. The host 
marched up Dr Headlam and presented him to Miss Hervey, 
to the intense disgust of Fitz Anstruther, Mrs Egerton’s 
brother, who found himself put off with the younger sister 
instead of the lady he adored, and a move was made into 
the dining-room. 

Dick North’s temper seemed to have improved in some 
measure since his conversation with Lady Haigh, and 
Georgia smiled inwardly over the change, gathering that a 
few kind things said by his chiefs wife would go far to soothe 
the ruffled susceptibilities of even so sensitive an individual, 
but she was not long in discovering that he had by no 
means forgiven herself. True, he was willing to talk, but 
with great persistence and considerable skill he kept the 
conversation directed to the ordinary trifles which form the 
staple subjects at most London dinner-tables. He might 
never have been further from Pall Mall than to Paris in his 
life, thought Georgia, with increasing irritation, while he 
was favouring her with his views on the Eton and Harrow 
match, and the iniquity of the vestries in taking up the 
principal thoroughfares in the height of the season. To 
add to her resentment, she saw, or believed she saw, that 
he was perfectly well aware of her eagerness to hear about 
his life in India and Khemistan, and that he was rejoicing 
in her unavailing disgust. Miss Hervey, his left-hand 
neighbour, claimed his attention at last, and Georgia found 
an attraction of greater power in the talk of Sir Dugald 
Haigh, a small, neutral-tinted man, with grey hair, grey eyes, 
grey moustache, and a greyish-brown skin, who was telling 
Mrs Egerton of various changes which had taken place in 


24 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Baghdad, whence he had lately returned, since the days of 
her residence there. 

“ I was not sorry to wash my hands of the place,” he 
said. “ Very likely I belong to an old, worn-out school, 
and my ways are too rough and ready for the kid-glove 
methods of to-day. Our rule was always to ask only for 
what we meant to have, but never to recede from a demand 
once made. ‘ Hold on like grim death,’ was our motto, and 
we followed it out. The method had this advantage, that 
every one knew we meant what we said. It’s a great thing 
not to be afraid of bringing on war if it’s necessary, but you 
are too squeamish for that nowadays.” 

Why, Sir Dugald,” said Mrs Egerton, laughing, “ any 
one hearing you would think you were a perfect firebrand, 
and ferociously bloodthirsty, but I remember that when I 
was at Baghdad there was nothing you dreaded so much 
as the slightest complication. I believe you would have 
done anything, short of hauling down the flag, to avert a 
disturbance.” 

“Don’t believe her. Miss Keeling,” said Sir Dugald. 
“ Behind my back she will be telling you that I am a 
regular Jingo.” 

“ And besides,” said Mrs Egerton, “ why you should talk 
as though you were a failure, I don’t know. You are trying 
to make Miss Keeling think that you have been ordered to 
Kubbet-ul-Haj as a punishment.” 

“ Hot quite,” said Sir Dugald, his eyebrows twitching a 
little. 

“ Ko, indeed, when you know that you are looking for- 
ward confidently to a K.C.B. or a peerage when you come 
home.” 

“ Ko, Mrs Egerton, I must draw the line there. I con- 
fidently expect nothing but to be disowned by the Govern- 
ment and denounced by the papers. We are told by a high 


A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS. 


25 


authority that the inhabitants of these islands are mostly 
fools, as you know. That is my consolation.” 

“ Sir Dugald considers all mankind fools, Georgie,” re- 
marked Mrs Egerton. “ If they don’t agree with him, that 
stamps them at once, naturally ; and if they do adopt his 
views, he feels sure that they must be fools to be so easily 
taken in.” 

You would not have ventured to say that in my 
presence at Baghdad,” said Sir Dugald, mournfully. “Miss 
Keeling, let me warn you in time. Don’t be tempted to 
presume upon my forbearance by the liberties this lady 
takes in her own house. I assure you that at Kubbet-ul- 
Haj you will find me a terrible martinet.” 

“ Oh, Sir Dugald, you are going to Ethiopia, aren’t you 1 ” 
asked a new voice, that of the younger Miss Hervey, who 
had tired at length of her vain attempts to propitiate her 
sister’s sulky and disappointed lover. 

“ I believe so,” answered Sir Dugald, looking at his 
questioner in some surprise. 

“ Oh yes,” with a little gasp. “ I thought I had heard 
Mr Anstruther say so, but he doesn’t seem to know very 
much about it. Where is Ethiopia, please 1 ” 

“ Opinions differ on that point,” returned Sir Dugald, not 
unconscious of the listeners round the table, who were 
laughing inwardly at the temerity of the girl who thought 
she could get the Chief to talk “ shop ” to her. “ Herodotus 
says it is in Africa, but Sir John Mandeville declares that 
he heard of it in Asia. We are going to see which is 
true.” 

“ Oh 1 ” with a blank stare of surprise. “ But why don’t 
you know ? ” 

“ I was not aware that I had said I did not know. The 
information is within the reach of any one possessed of an 
ordinary school atlas.” 


26 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Oh, Sir Dugald, you say such funny things ! But why 
are you going ? ” 

“ Because I am sent,” returned Sir Dugald, shortly, for 
he wished to return to his conversation with his hostess and 
Georgia. But the snub failed of its effect. 

“Oh yes, of course. But what are you going to do 
there r’ 

With a sigh Sir Dugald resigned himself to answer the 
demands of this persistent young lady, and pushing his plate 
from him, arranged a plan with dessert forks and spoons. 

“This space represents Ethiopia,” he said, “and this 
biscuit will show you roughly the position of Kubbet-ul-Haj, 
the capital. The country has been touched by European 
commerce only on its borders, but it contains vast grain- 
producing districts and enormous mineral wealth, which 
only needs being worked. Hence it offers a wide field for 
the employment of capital, as well as a practically untouched 
market for manufactured goods. For these reasons, and 
also on account of its situation, the great European powers 
all take a friendly interest in it, more especially Scythia and 
Heustria. Heustrian influence approaches it very closely 
on one side, and the Scythian sphere on another, but its 
eastern boundary is conterminous with our Khemistan 
Frontier, about which Major North or Miss Keeling could 
tell you a good deal more than I can. Unauthorised, or, at 
any rate, unrecognised and semi-private expeditions from all 
three countries have tried to reach Kubbet-ul-Haj, but have 
failed, and the King has always refused to receive a diplo- 
matic mission, the object of which would be, of course, to 
conclude a commercial treaty. We have always contended 
that we had the best right to open up Ethiopia to European 
trade, and of course our being actually on the frontier gives 
us a start in the race. But just lately we gained a new 
advantage, for Eustam Khan, the King’s eldest son, who 


A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS. 


27 


had been sent to put down a rising among the tribes near 
our frontier, fell in with one of our surveying parties, and 
took a great fancy to the officers. The errand on which he 
had been sent was a kind of honourable banishment, for it 
seems that he and the Grand Vizier are always at daggers 
drawn, and that the King sympathises with the Vizier, but 
when he was summoned back to Court he must have 
managed to gain his father’s ear again, for friendly overtures 
were made by the King to the Khemistan authorities for 
the settlement of some trifling boundary dispute. Un- 
official journeys were made to Kubbet-ul-Haj by two or 
three of our frontier officers, and the last brought back word 
that the King would be willing to receive a mission and to 
enter into an alliance. Negotiations have since taken place, 
and preliminaries been arranged, and our business now is to 
conclude the treaty embodying the various provisions which 
have practically been agreed to on both sides — in the rough, 
of course. And I reaUy must apologise,” said Sir Dugald 
in conclusion, for the way in which I have been boring 
every one, but it is Miss Hervey’s commendable desire for 
information that is to blame.” 

“ I didn’t know that you were acquainted with the 
Khemistan Frontier,” said Dick to Georgia, under cover of 
the buzz of conversation which succeeded to the enforced 
silence. 

^‘Although my father lived and died there?” asked 
Georgia, with a little resentment in her tone. 

** What a fool I am ! To think that I should have for- 
gotten, even for a moment, that General Keeling was your 
father ! Why, it was that which originally drew me to the 
Warden of the Marches — I mean — er — ” Dick stumbled and 
hurried on — “ well, I have worshipped him ever since I first 
went out. He is our patron saint out there in Khemistan, 
you know 1 ” 


28 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“I know,” said Georgia. “I found it so when I was 
there.” 

“ But have you been in Khemistan ? How is it that we 
never met ^ ” 

‘‘It was the year you were on leave, when you went 
round the world with your uncle and Mabel. I visited 
Khemistan to see whether there was any chance of my being 
able to complete my father’s work.” 

“ How was that 1 ” 

“It was his great desire that missionaries should come 
and settle among the people, but the Government thought it 
would be dangerous, and forbade them to establish them- 
selves permanently on the frontier. My father and I al- 
ways hoped that when I went out to keep house for him, I 
might be able to do something, just in the way of making a 
beginning — but as you know, he died before I left school.” 

“I know that it was while I was still in India,” said 
Dick. “ It was reading the accounts of his life and work 
which first led me to make interest to get myself transferred 
to the Khemistan Horse, so as to be stationed on that 
frontier. But did you succeed in your mission!” 

“Ho; I travelled with a missionary and his wife who 
were itinerating through the country, but though the people 
were friendly, especially when they heard who I was, they 
did not care to listen to us, and the Government were still 
so hostile to the establishment of a station, that the society 
to which I had offered myself would not take up the work. 
Then I came home and studied medicine, hoping that I 
might eventually do something in that way. I believe 
that a Zenana Mission has just been set on foot in Bab-us- 
Sahel, on the coast, so that perhaps I shall be able to join 
it when we return from Ethiopia. I only accepted the post 
that the Government offered me in the expedition in the 
hope that some good might result from the journey.” 


FELLOW-TRAVELLERS. 


29 


** As regards Khemistan % ” asked Dick. 

^'es. It was my father’s country, and it is mine.” 
“And so it is mine !” said Dick, involuntarily. 


CHAPTEK III. 

FELLOW-TRAVELLERS. 

Dick went home that night in a highly unsettled state 
of mind. He was cherishing a vague and unreasonable 
feeling of resentment against his own absence from 
Khemistan during Georgia’s visit to the province. It 
would have been very pleasant to come upon that mission- 
ary camp during his own hurried expeditions from point 
to point in the unquiet district for which he was respon- 
sible ; pleasant also to watch Miss Keeling in her dealings 
with the people, among whom her father’s name was a 
synonym for all that was just and honourable. Perhaps, 
if he had met her again at that time, before she had been 
spoilt by her medical training, things might have fallen 

out differently for both of them. He might even 

But this was a forbidden subject. What were such 
speculations to him % Long ago Miss Keeling had refused 
plainly enough to have anything to do with him, and 
now he had ceased to wish to have anything to do 
with her. He was a fool to be thinking so much about 
her, he told himself angrily. Desiring to divert his mind 
from such an unprofitable theme, he turned to Mabel, 
and inquired whether she had noticed his capture by 
Mrs Egerton’s stepmother. In the course of the evening, 


30 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Mrs Anstmther, a cheerful, sprightly Irish lady, had 
manoeuvred him into a corner, and then and there seized 
the opportunity of commending her hoy solemnly to his 
care, having already intrusted the same precious charge 
to Lady Haigh and Georgia, Sir Dugald, Mr Stratford, 
and the doctor. Knowing this, Dick had tried to comfort 
her with the assurance that if a multiplicity of guardians 
could keep Titz out of mischief, his safety ought to be 
secured. 

“ And that’s not all,” responded Mrs Anstruther, brightly, 
accepting the consolation at once, and looking across the 
room to the opposite corner, in which Miss Hervey’s fan 
was obviously shielding two faces, ‘‘for the dear hoy is 
very old for his age. Sure an attachment to a good girl 
is one of the best safeguards a young man can have, and 
Fitz has that.” 

As in duty hound, Dick applauded this sentiment, 
while venturing to suggest a doubt as to the permanency 
of such early attachments, especially in cases in which 
the lady’s age exceeded that of the gentleman by some 
five years; hut Mrs Anstruther was rendered indignant 
by what she chose to consider as an implied aspersion 
on her son’s character, and retorted hotly that she hadn’t 
a doubt Fitz would come back from Kubbet-ul-Haj as 
deeply in love as ever, and she was thankful Lady Haigh 
and Miss Keeling were going to accompany the Mission. 
Women respected deep feelings of this kind, instead of 
sneering or joking about them, like men. 

“And, of course you told her that your own experi- 
ence had convinced you of the truth of that ? ” asked 
Mabel. 

“ Certainly not,” returned Dick, with dignity. “ I 
merely said that I thought it depended a good deal or 
the woman.” 


FELLOW-TEA VELLERS. 


31 


Mabel laughed with great enjoyment. “Guess where 
Georgie and I are going to-morrow morning?” she said. 

“ To your dressmaker’s, or to some sale.” 

“Not a bit of it. We are going to a shooting-gallery, to 
try a little revolver -practice. Now, don’t look disgusted, 
because you know you would give anything to go with us. 
If you had behaved sensibly I would take you, but you have 
been so horrid to Georgie that I shan’t.” 

“ A nice sort of revolver Miss Keeling will get hold of, 
with no one to help her choose it ! ” said Dick, evading 
the question. 

“ She has got a beauty, which Sir Dugald chose for her, 
and Lady Haigh has one exactly like it,” said Mabel, 
triumphantly. 

“But why doesn’t she wait to practise with it until 
we are at sea? It gives one something to do on board 
ship.” 

“Oh, I daresay she will go on practising then, but she 
means to get over the first difficulties now. And besides, 
I want to see whet^ier it’s really true that you can’t fire 
without shutting your eyes at the beginning. But, at any 
rate, I thought you and INIr Stratford were going to travel 
by the overland route, so that you will lose a good bit 
of the voyage?” 

“That is something to be thankful for, in any case. I 
should say that the members of the Mission will not be 
exactly a happy family.” 

“Well, if they aren’t, I shall know where to look for the 
disturbing element. By the bye, I ought not to have told 
you yesterday that Georgie would marry no one but the 
surgeon of some big hospital. I heard her say to-day that 
she respected a man for himself, and not for his profession, 
or something of that sort.” 

“ Highly interesting, no doubt, and creditable to Miss 


32 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Keeling’s breadth of mind, but I don’t quite see what the 
information has to do with me.” 

“ ISTor do I at the present moment. It is merely one of 
those valuable bits of knowledge which every one ought to 
treasure up, because they are sure to come in useful some 
day. How do I know that some time or other you will 
not thank me with tears in your eyes for just those few 
words 1 ” 

This was the last conversation that Mabel held with Dick 
on the subject of Miss Keeling before his departure, for she 
was a discerning young woman, and felt satisfied to leave to 
time the further growth and development of the seeds she 
had sown. Moreover, there was little further opportunity 
for initiating the elaborate preliminaries necessary to lead 
up to the discussion of a subject on which Dick was 
resolved not to enter ; for the larger division of the Kubb'^l;- 
ul-Haj party, consisting of Sir Dugald and Lady Haigh, 
Georgia, Dr Headlam, and Fitz Anstruther, left England in 
the course of the next week, while only three days later 
Dick and Mr Stratford started on their journey across 
Europe to the southern port at which they were to meet 
the ship. 

As travelling companions the two suited one another 
admirably. They had the wholesome respect for each 
other’s powers which a month of successful big game shoot- 
ing together in rough country is wont to engender, and 
they differed sufficiently in character to give their inter- 
course a spice of variety. Mr Stratford was a man after 
Sir Dugald Haigh’s own heart. He had risen rapidly in 
the Diplomatic Service, until, at the time when the idea of 
a Mission to Ethiopia was first mooted, he held a^ responsible 
position in the British Embassy at Czarigrad. It showed 
the importance attached to this Mission by the Govern- 
ment, that a man of his standing had been appointed to 


FELLOW-TKAVELLERS. 


33 


accompany it, but Sir Dugald, who had made his acquaint- 
ance in the East, had requested that he should be chosen. 
He was an excellent linguist, with all his chiefs powers 
of diplomacy, but with far more talent for society than 
Sir Dugald possessed, and with a capacity for self-efface- 
ment which seemed to Dick sometimes to amount almost 
to a double personality. His wild, open-air life among a 
wild people had not tended to teach Dick to conceal his 
thoughts, but he had succeeded well enough among his 
unruly frontiersmen, who felt greater respect for the long 
arm which could deal a distant and unexpected blow than 
for a tongue distilling all the wisdom of the ages. 

It was when he was brought into contact with the more 
sophisticated townsmen, or with the weaker and craftier 
races of India, that Dick felt himself at a loss; and he 
observed, with vain intentions of emulating it, the way in 
which his friend would apparently give himself up alto- 
gether to the trivial business or wearisome pleasure of the 
hour without once forgetting the object he had in view. 
That he had never lost sight of his aim was proved by his 
sudden descent, just at the right moment, upon his op- 
ponents, who thought they had thrown him off his guard, 
but found that they were altogether mistaken. By his 
superiors at the Foreign Office, Mr Stratford was regarded 
as a thoroughly dependable man who was always to be 
trusted to tackle any particularly nasty piece of business, 
while by his contemporaries and subordinates he was ab- 
horred as a fellow who seldom took his leave unless he 
saw the chance of employing it in some sort of work likely 
to bear upon his official duties, and whose proceedings 
disposed the authorities to expect far too much from other 
people. He was bound to be ambassador some day, they 
supposed, but he might allow those who did not aim so 
high to have the chance of a quiet life. 

C 


34 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Dick was among the few men who knew the story that 
lay in the background of Mr Stratford's life. On one 
occasion, when they were hunting together in Kashmir, 
Stratford was severely wounded by a bear, and Dick, while 
bandaging his friend’s left arm, discovered that under the 
signet he wore on his little finger, and almost concealed by 
it, was a wedding-ring. He learnt the story which attached 
to it somewhat later. Years ago, Mr Stratford had been 
engaged to the daughter of one of the foreign represen- 
tatives at Eusebia, where he held a post in the British 
Legation, and all things seemed to combine to promise him 
happiness. But only three days before the time appointed 
for the wedding, the bride fell ill, and there was terror and 
panic in the city when the news crept about that her 
malady was the plague. She died on the day on which 
she was to have been married, and this was the end of Mr 
Stratford’s dream of bliss, of which there remained now 
only the unused wedding-ring. Dick could still recall the 
even voice in which he had told his tale as the two men 
sat by their camp-fire with the darkness of the forest around 
them. He heard only the bare facts, and he felt that these 
were merely told him to account for the presence of the 
ring. They were related without a sign of emotion, without 
a single expression of regret or of self-pity ; but the story 
unveiled to Dick the tragedy which was hidden behind his 
friend’s prosperous life. Neither of them had ever referred 
again to that night’s confidences; but Dick felt grateful 
that the mask had once been lifted for his benefit. Hence- 
forward, no one could allude to Stratford in his presence as 
a fellow without a heart, or hint that he was a diplomatist 
rather than a man, without his taking up the cudgels hotly 
for the absent one. 

The journey across Europe was performed without delay 
or other mishap, and, after a few hours’ waiting at the port 


FELLOW-TRAVELLERS. 


35 


Stratford and Dick were able to board their vessel. The 
first member of their own party that they met was the 
doctor, who gave them a hearty welcome, and proceeded to 
pour his own woes into their sympathetic ears. The ship 
had met with fearful weather in the Bay, and, if he had 
known what a time was before him, he would have gone 
overland with them. 

“ But you must have found it all right since you passed 
the Eock 1 ” said Dick. 

“ Oh yes, it has been endurable. The Chief and I have 
been cramming Ethiopian with the interpreter, Kustendjian 
— a very clever fellow. We shall have the start of you 
there. We shall be swimming along gaily in the reading- 
book while you two are floundering through your alphabet. 
To hear that Armenian chap deferentially commending Sir 
Dugald for his progress is a joke ! He’s a thorough courtier, 
and wouldn’t let your humble servant get ahead of the 
Chief on any account.” 

“ It shows Sir Dugald’s pluck that he has begun a new 
language at all at his age,” said Stratford. “ Most men 
would have left everything to Kustendjian, and thrown the 
blame on him if things went wrong.” 

“ Oh, we all know that you will back up the Chief on 
every possible occasion,” said the doctor, irreverently. “ He 
ought to be thankful that he has such a faithful trumpeter 
at hand to act as his understudy in case of need. But you 
mark my words, if ever I have to put the Chief on the sick- 
list, North and I will give you a jolly time ! ” 

“ Eegularly beastly ! ” agreed Dick. “ But you seem to 
have been badly off for occupation if you took to studying 
Ethiopian. Was there absolutely nothing to do 1 ” 

“ Not much, except to watch the love affair.” 

“ What love affair ? ” 

“ It’s the greatest joke in the world ! You remember 


36 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


that young idiot Anstruther, how he carried on with Miss 
Hervey at the Egertons’ dinner-party 1 W ell, he saw fit to 
be thrown out of his berth in the gale that caught us in the 
Bay — got his wrist sprained and his thumb crushed, or 
something of the sort. The surgeon on board here and I 
were at our wits’ end with all the ladies who knew they 
were dying and insisted on the doctor’s attending them at 
once, besides the other knocks and injuries that really 
needed looking after, so we were thankful when Miss 
Keeling volunteered her aid. She wasn’t ill, while it was 
as much as I could do to stagger feebly about, holding on 
to things, and we thought it would be an excellent thing to 
hand the ladies over to her care — ^just temporarily, of course. 
But the ladies, to a woman, refused to have anything to do 
with her, except Lady Haigh, who wasn’t ill, and we were 
actually obliged to give her the surgical work, for the men 
who had got knocked about were too anxious to be looked 
after to care who did it. You needn’t put on that face ” — 
catching sight of Dick’s look of disgust — “she did it as 
well as I could have done it myself. But we hadn’t bar- 
gained for the effect of her ministrations on the susceptible 
heart of young Anstruther. He was winged at the first 
shot, and the next day’s dressing of his hand finished him. 
Since he has been able to crawl on deck, he has done 
nothing but follow Miss Keeling about, and when she sits 
down he sits down too, and looks at her.” 

“ Young fool,” laughed Stratford. “ How lively for Miss 
Keeling ! But what about the other girl % ” 

“ Miss Hervey ? Oh, I taxed him with her one day, and 
he had his answer all ready. He compared himself to 
Borneo, and one or two other old Johnnies of that sort, and 
felt that he had quite justified his conduct.” 

A shout of laughter followed, in which Dick joined, not- 
withstanding his disgust. It was not quite clear, even 


FELLOW-TRAVELLERS. 


37 


to himself, why he should object so strongly to young 
Anstruther’s behaviour, but he recognised that he resented 
it very vigorously. Georgia was nothing to him, of course ; 
but — well, a man who had gone through it all before was 
sorry to see another young beggar making an ass of himself. 
He did not know whether to he more angry with the youth 
for his foolishness, or with Miss Keeling for tolerating it. 
She did not welcome her youthful adorer’s attentions — he 
was obliged to confess this when he saw her treatment of 
him ; but why should she allow them to continue when a 
word to Sir Dugald would have rid her of them 1 And the 
boy was really painfully absurd, whether he was taking 
immediate possession of any empty chair within a radius of 
a dozen yards from Miss Keeling, or scowling at those who 
did not give him a chance of getting nearer. Georgia was 
a favourite on board — there was no denying it. The 
younger men, with the conspicuous exception of Fitz, looked 
askance at her, certainly, and avoided her neighbourhood, 
muttering something about the Kew Woman; but the 
elders declared her unanimously to be the most sensible 
girl on board. “ A woman who knows any amount, and 
never parades it, but is always ready to learn from other 
people, and doesn’t want to talk dress or scandal, is refresh- 
ing to meet,” they said, not troubling themselves to remem- 
ber that they would have fought their hardest to repress 
in their own daughters any approach to Georgia’s particular 
tastes. 

To his own sore discomfort of mind, Dick surprised the 
same inconsistency in himself. It was one of his favourite 
theories that women who aped men (the term was a compre- 
hensive one, and covered a good many things, from studying 
art to riding a bicycle), lost by such a course of action any 
right to help or special courtesy from men. And yet he 
found himself watching jealously for any chance of moving 


38 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Miss Keeling’s deck-chair for her, or fetching her a hook 
from the library, without even waiting to be asked. It 
gave him a curious feeling of gratification to catch the look 
of pleased surprise on her face, and to receive words of 
thanks from her lips — to know, in short, that he had made 
her indebted to him, and that she liked it. Moreover, in 
spite of his former unhappy experience, he seized every 
opportunity of conversation with her, and engaged her in 
endless arguments on the Woman Question — a species of 
mental activity which Georgia hated at all times, and which 
was particularly distasteful to her in this case, since only the 
very surface of the subject could of necessity be touched. 

“It is really too bad of Major North to go on teasing 
Miss Keeling in this way,” said Lady Haigh to Mr Stratford 
one evening ; “ and if he only knew it, it is so silly of him, 
too. Georgia has had plenty of practice in arguments of 
this kind, for every man she meets begins his acquaintance 
with her by trying to convert her. She has her most telling 
pieces of evidence all marshalled ready for use, while Major 
North has nothing but a few prejudices to support him. 
The other men all give it up, sooner or later, and decide 
to accept things as they are, and be thankful, and why 
doesn’t hel” 

“ I’m sure I don’t know,” said Stratford. “ Perhaps his 
obstinacy is stronger than theirs, or he thinks he has a 
right to carry matters further — as a family friend of Miss 
Keeling’s.” 

“As if that would have any influence over her ! ” said 
Lady Haigh, scornfully. “Now, I ask you, is it likely that 
after going through her training as creditably as she has 
done, she would ever allow herself to be convinced that 
it had been impossible or improper for her to study medi- 
cine ] And if she was convinced, do you think any woman 
worthy of the name would ever allow him to see it 1 ” 


FELLOW-TRAVELLERS. 


39 


** I should think it extremely improbable. But according 
to North himself, his intention is purely philanthropic. He 
told me yesterday that he considered it only charity to talk 
to Miss Keeling as often as he possibly conld, in order to 
protect her from that terrible youngster.” 

Lady Haigh went off into a fit of subdued laughter, which 
would have astonished and wounded Dick if he had known 
its cause, for he believed honestly in the explanation of his 
conduct which he had offered, quite unasked, to Stratford. 
If it did give him a thrill of pleasure when Miss Keeling’s 
dark eyes were raised to his face, in inquiry or in indignant 
protest, or even in mirthful contradiction, it was merely 
because his chivalry was receiving an incidental and wholly 
unlooked-for reward. He was only doing his duty in pro- 
tecting a lady of his acquaintance against a youth who had 
shown himself disposed to take an undue advantage either 
of her kindness or her thoughtlessness. It did not strike 
him that Miss Keeling might be quite able to take care of 
herself under the circumstances, much less that she might 
prefer to do so ; but Fitz Anstruther was made aware of the 
fact before the voyage concluded. 

“ At last ! ” he exclaimed, one evening, with a sigh of satis- 
faction, as he annexed the chair which Dick had just vacated. 
“ I do believe that conceited beast North thinks you like to 
hear him everlastingly prosing away. Miss Keeling.” 

“People are often blind to one’s real feelings in their 
presence,” said Georgia ; but the double meaning went un- 
perceived. 

“ Yes ; but he might have had a little pity for me,” said 
Fitz, complacently, for he had an artless habit of exhibiting 
to the public gaze any sentiments, such as most people pre- 
fer to keep concealed in their own bosoms, that he con- 
sidered did him credit. “ Every one on board must know 
by this time that I am awfully gone on you.” 


40 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ Mr Anstruther ! ” 

“ Oh, I mean, of course, that I have admired you awfullj 
ever since I first knew you. A fellow expects a little con- 
sideration to be shown him when he is in 1 — I mean — don’t 
you know ? ” 

“ How long have you known me, by the bye 1 ” inquired 
Georgia. 

Oh, all this voyage. It’s been abominably long, don’t you 
think ? But I don’t mean that, you know ; it’s been jolly.” 

“ Yes ; it is really a long time,” pursued Georgia, medi- 
tatively. “It is all but a fortnight, isn’t it 1 ” 

“A fortnight is as long as a year sometimes,” said Fitz. 
“ I mean, as good,” he added, hurriedly. 

“ Yes ; only a fortnight ago you were saying all this to 
Miss Hervey,” was the unexpected response. 

“ Oh, I say now. Miss Keeling, that’s a hit hard on a 
man,” cried Fitz, much wounded. 

“ A man 9 ” said Georgia, inquiringly ; and the youth 
writhed. 

“ Of course I was awfully gone on Miss Hervey before 
we started,” he said, sulkily ; “ hut it was only because she 
was so pretty, and she doesn’t care for me a scrap. She 
told me so lots of times.” 

“ Is that intended as an excuse for the way in which you 
have been behaving lately 1 ” asked Georgia ; “ because I 
don’t quite see the connection. Allow me to tell you, Mr 
Anstruther, that you have been doing your best to make 
both yourself and me supremely ridiculous. I can’t inter- 
fere with you if your ambition is to make every one laugh at 
you, though I may regret it for you own sake ; but I object 
very strongly to your trying to render me absurd.” 

“ Mayn’t a — a fellow change his mind 1 ” Fitz wished to 
know, in an injured tone. “ If I am in love I’m not 
ashamed of it” 


FELLOW-TRAVELLERS. 


41 


“I hoped that your own good feeling would have led 
you to see by this time how foolish you have been,” said 
Georgia, coldly. “ I could have freed myself in a moment 
from the annoyance you have caused me by a word to Sir 
Dugald ” — Fitz’s face fell suddenly — “ hut I was sorry to 
lower his opinion of you at the very beginning of your work 
with him. Your sister is a great friend of mine, and I 
hoped you might he sufficiently like her not to resent 
advice which was offered for your good.” 

“ Fm awfully obliged to you for not complaining to Sir 
Dugald about me,” returned the culprit, with some reluc- 
tance. “ I didn’t mean to behave like a cad to you. Miss 
Keeling, nor to make you look ridiculous. I’ll try not to 
bother you any more, if you really don’t like it. Only 
mayn’t I speak to you sometimes ? It will he rather dull 
if I am not to say a word all the way to Kuhbet-ul-Haj.” 

“ I am quite serious,” said Georgia, rather sharply. 

“ So am I, Miss Keeling, I do assure you — tremendously 
serious. It is a serious thing when a fellow finds himself 
brought up in mid-career in this way. I only want to have 
my orders given me. I like to he definite. We may be 
friends stUl, I hope ? ” 

“ I see that I need not have taken so much trouble to 
spare your feelings,” said Georgia. “ If I had ever imagined, 
Mr Anstruther, that your conduct sprang simply from a 
desire to make me a laughing-stock on board, I should not 
have felt inclined to waste any consideration on you.” 

“ Oh, Miss Keeling, you are making a mistake — on my 
word and honour you are ! ” cried the youth, earnestly. 
“ What a beast you must think me ! I know I am bad 
enough ; but it’s not quite that. I do admire you tremen- 
dously, and so I did Miss Hervey. It’s a way I have. 
I don’t mean any harm ; but I do delight in being rotted 
about it by other chaps. They are all so dreadfully afraid 


42 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


of being suspected to be the least bit in love, that it’s a 
great temptation to show them how well one can go through 
with it.” 

“Then try to conquer the temptation,” said Georgia, 
promptly, although she found her fan useful to conceal a 
smile. “You are far too young to think of being in love 
yet. What you call love is merely a momentary enthu- 
siasm. Why not wax enthusiastic over some cause, for a 
change, or even some man — Sir Dugald, for instance?” 

“ I did think a lot about him at first, but he snubbed 
me in such a horribly cold-blooded way,” was the reply. 

“Take my advice, and think all the more of him for 
that. You will be thankful for it yet. And perhaps you 
may be thankful some day for what I have said to you 
to-night. My lecture was not received quite in the spirit 
I had anticipated, but I think you must see that the 
form which your enthusiasms took was not calculated to 
do any good to any one, and might have done harm. 
Happily Miss Hervey and I are both a good many years 
older than you are, but a young girl might have thought 
you were sincere, and have suffered terribly when she was 
undeceived.” 

“ It is so hard to be always thinking of what might be 
the consequences of everything!” lamented Fitz. 

“ It would be harder to have to take the consequences 
after refusing to think of them. You will marry some day, 
I hope, and would you feel you were acting fairly towards 
your wife if you had frittered away beforehand all the affec- 
tion and devotion which were her right ? Keep yourself 
for her.” 

“Thanks awfuUy, Miss Keeling, for saying that. Ko 
one ever spoke to me in this way before. You will let me 
be friends with you, won’t you? I should like you to 
advise me always.’^ 


AGAINST HIS WILL. 


43 


I can promise you more advice than you will ever think 
is needed. In a few years,” said Georgia, with some bit- 
terness, “ you will hate the very sight of me, because of 
what I have said to you to-night.” 

“ If I was ever such a beastly cad, I hope I should be 
punished as I deserved ! ” said Fitz, fervently. 

“ It is only the way of the world — of men, at any rate,” 
returned Georgia, as lightly as she could ; but when she was 
alone a little later, her mind recurred to the subject, and 
found no mirth in it. 

‘‘It is Major North’s way too,” she said to herself. 
“ How he would have sneered if he had heard me to-night ! 
I might be that boy’s grandmother, from the way he accepts 
my scoldings.” 


CHAPTEE lY. 

AGAINST HIS WILL. 

“ I beg your pardon for disturbing you, but I think you 
must belong to the British Mission to Ethiopia 1 ” 

The speaker was a hot and dusty lady, mounted on a 
sorry pony, who had halted in front of the hotel at Bab-us- 
Sahel, the port of Khemistan, in which Sir Dugald Haigh’s 
party were quartered. Dick North, who had been reclining 
in a cane chair on the verandah, with a cigar and a wonder- 
fully printed local paper, jumped up when he heard the voice. 

“I am a member of the Mission,” he answered. “ Can 
I do anything for you 1 I am sorry that Sir Dugald Haigh 
is out, but perhaps you would prefer to wait for him? 
Won’t you come in out of the sun?” 


44 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ Thanks,” said the lady, dismounting nimbly before he 
could reach her, and giving the bridle to a youthful native 
groom who had accompanied her, “ but I need not trouble 
Sir Dugald Haigh. Please tell me whether it is true that 
there is a lady doctor in your party 1 ” 

“Yes. Miss Keeling is her name.” 

The lady uttered an exclamation of delight. 

“ Oh, that is just splendid ! I must see her at once, 
please. My name is Guest ; she will remember me if you 
tell her that Kurse Laura is here. I was a probationer at 
the Women’s Hospital when she was house-surgeon there, 
and we knew each other well. Please ask her to see me at 
once : it is a matter of life and death.” 

Drawing forward a chair for the lady, Dick departed on 
his errand, and returned presently with Georgia, who had 
been resting in her room after a long ride in the morning. 
Miss Guest jumped up to meet her. 

“ Oh, Miss Keeling, it is such a relief to find you here ! 
I want you to come with me at once, to see a poor woman 
who is most dangerously ill. I will tell you about it while 
you get your things together. There is not a moment to 
lose.” 

The two ladies vanished round the comer of the verandah, 
and returned in a few minutes, Georgia wearing her riding- 
habit and carrying a professional-looking black bag. 

“ Would you be so kind as to tell them to put my saddle 
on a fresh horse for me. Major North?” she said, briskly. 
“ I am afraid we are losing time.” 

“ What is it you are proposing to do 1 ” asked Dick, after 
calling one of the native servants and giving him the order. 

“Miss Keeling is going to ride out with me to our 
summer station,” explained Miss Guest, volubly. “Mis- 
sionaries are not permitted to reside in Khemistan except 
in Bab- us -Sahel itself, you know, but the Government 


AGAINST HIS WILL. 


45 


allows us to rent a small house in a village five miles off for 
the hot weather. This poor young woman is the wife of 
one of our native converts there, the son of the principal 
landowner.” 

“ But do you mean that Miss Keeling is to ride five miles 
in this heat, when she is tired already*?” demanded Dick. 
“ It is preposterous ! ” 

“ I should not think of asking her to do it if it was not 
so important,” said Miss Guest. “ You see, I have ridden 
all the way in, and I am going out again with her.” 

“ You will be down with sunstroke to-morrow,” said Dick 
to Georgia. “Wait until it is a little cooler, and I will 
hunt up some sort of cart and drive you out.” 

“We can’t afford the time,” said Georgia. 

“Ko, indeed,” said Miss Guest; “I scarcely dared to 
come away myself. Happily, I was able to leave dear Miss 
Jenkins with the poor woman. She has such wonderful 
nerve ! I believe she would have attempted the operation 
herself if only we had had the proper appliances.” 

“ It is a very good thing you had not,” murmured Georgia, 
grimly. 

Dick glanced at her, hoping that she was giving way. 

“Headlam will he back in another half-hour,” he said. 
“He has had plenty of experience, and he will he delighted 
to go out and see the woman.” 

“ Oh, but you don’t know Khemistan,” said Miss Guest, 
quickly. “ Surely you must have forgotten that a gentleman 
would never be admitted into the women’s apartments.” 

“ I thought you said the people were Christians 1 ” said 
Dick, taken aback. 

“The husband is, but the wife has not been baptised, 
and is stiU in her father-in-law’s house. They are most 
bigoted people, and regard this as a kind of test case. 
Every one has been dinning into the poor young man’s eaw 


46 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


that his wife’s illness is a judgment upon him for becoming 
a Christian, and his faith is beginning to waver. ^What 
can these Christians and their Christ do for you 1 ’ they ask 
him. He is terribly tried, and though Miss Jenkins and I 
have done everything we could think of for the poor girl, it 
was no good. Then we heard of the arrival of the Mission, 
and it suddenly flashed into my mind that I had seen some- 
thing in a paper from home about a lady doctor who was to 
accompany it, and I rode over here at once, and found Miss 
Keeling, of all people. It was a real answer to prayer,” 
and Miss Guest’s voice faltered, and the tears rose in her 
eyes. 

“Oh, when are they going to bring that horse*?” said 
Georgia, impatiently. 

“ I hear it coming now,” said Dick. “ But let me drive 
you over. Miss Keeling ; it won’t be so fatiguing for you, 
and I am sure I can borrow a cart from some one very 
soon.” 

“ I can’t lose another minute,” said Georgia. “ Ho, thank 
you, Major Korth, we must not wait.” 

“ But just tell me when you are likely to be ready, that 
we may send a carriage to fetch you.” 

“ I can’t tell These cases vary so much. I shall prob- 
ably be obliged to remain at the village all night.” 

“ But this is absurd ! You are throwing away your 
health. What does this woman signify to you*?” 

“ It is my professional duty to attend any one who sum- 
mons me,” said Georgia, giving him an indignant glance ; 
“ even if there were no special reasons connected with this 
case.” 

“ Well, if you will do these ridiculous things, I can’t help 
it ! ” said Dick, angrily. “ I suppose you will have your 
own way.” 

“I think it extremely probable that I shall,” retorted 


AGAINST HIS WILL. 


47 


Georgia. “ No, thank you, I won’t trouble you — I can 
mount alone.” 

With an intensity that would have seemed laughable to 
himself under any other circumstances, Dick longed that 
she might find the feat impracticable ; but she beckoned to 
the groom to bring the horse to the verandah steps, and, 
mounting with great agility, rode away with Miss Guest, 
who had been staring with round eyes at the “horrid sneer- 
ing officer,” as, after this day’s experience, she persisted in 
denominating Dick. 

As for Dick himself, he shrugged his shoulders as he 
looked after the two ladies, and went away to Stratford’s 
room to relieve his mind. Stratford, who was lying on his 
bed reading, looked up in surprise as he entered. 

“ I thought I had left you comfortably established on the 
verandah % ” he remarked. 

“ I was driven away by an invasion of the Amazons,” said 
Dick, gloomily, taking a seat on the table, where he smoked 
in silence for a few minutes. “If there is one kind of 
creature I bar and detest above all others ” — he burst out 
suddenly — “ it’s the New Woman ! ” 

“ Have you met one % ” inquired Stratford, with deep 
interest. “ I always thought it was a case of ‘ much oftener 
prated of than seen % ’ ” 

“There’s no need to go about looking for specimens,” 
returned Dick. “ We’ve got one with us, worse luck ! ” 

“ You have been getting the worst of it in an argument 
again, haven’t you 1 ” asked Stratford, genially. 

“ What in the world has that to do with it ? I don’t 
want any of your chaff. It ought to be made penal for 
any woman to enter any trade or profession practised by 
men.” 

“ Good gracious ! would you add the attraction of for- 
bidden fruit ? Still, I don’t say that your plan Lsn’t worth 


48 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


considering. The penalty would he death, I suppose, and it 
might redress the inequality of the sexes a little.” 

“ Oh, hang it all, Stratford ! ” cried Dick, flinging away 
his cigar, “ I’m serious. It makes me perfectly sick to see 
these women parading their independence of men, and 
glorying in what they know, and ought never to have 
learnt. It’s bad enough when they are strangers, and you 
don’t care a scrap about them, hut when it comes to a girl 
you’ve known ” 

“ Better not go on, old man,” said Stratford. “ You may 
say more than you mean, and be sorry for it when you are 
cooler.” 

“ I can’t help it. I know I’m safe with you. Now I 
put it to you : can a man be cool when he sees a girl he 
knew years ago — his sister’s friend — turning into one of 
these unsexed women, of whom the less that is said the 
better ? One would rather see her in her grave ! ” 

“ You are a little out of sorts,” said Stratford, with im- 
perturbable calmness, “ and you are making mountains out 
of molehills. I won’t pretend not to know what you are 
driving at, but I do say that I think you are using most un- 
warrantable language Hullo! who’s there 1 Come in.” 

This was in answer to a knock at the door, which opened 
immediately, and admitted Fitz Anstruther. The young 
fellow’s hands were clenched and his face flushed, and it 
was apparent to the two men that he was hard put to it to 
restrain an outburst of furious passion. 

“ I wasn’t listening,” he said, hastily, “ hut I couldn’t 
help hearing what you were saying. These beastly 
rooms ” He broke off suddenly, and his hearers, per- 

ceiving that the side walls only reached within some six 
feet of the roof, realised that their conversation must have 
been audible to any of their ^neighbours on either side who 
chanced to be in their rooms. “ But that’s neither here nor 


AGAINST HIS WILL. 


49 


there,” he went on. “I heard you blackguarding Miss 
Keeling’s name in the most shameful way, and I am not 
going to listen to it.” 

“ I was not aware that we had mentioned the name of 
any lady,” said Stratford. Fitz was taken aback for a 
moment, but recovered himself speedily. 

“ It wasn’t you, it was Major North,” he said, glaring at 
Dick. “ He mentioned no names, but if he can assure me 
he wasn’t speaking of Miss Keeling, I’ll apologise at once. 
You see? I knew he could not do it. Now look here, 
Major North — you are my superior, and I know you can 
ruin me if you like, but I won’t hear Miss Keeling spoken 
of in that way.” 

“ Your hearing what you did was quite your own affair,” 
said Dick, coolly. He had an enormous advantage over 
Fitz, for the sudden attack had restored him to his usual 
calmness, but the boy did not flinch. 

“I know, but I can’t help that. You may be sure I 
wouldn’t have listened to it of my own accord, but when 
you talked as you did, it naturally forced itself on my hear- 
ing, and a nice hearing it was ! Miss Keeling has no one 
here to look after her, and if you are cad enough to take 
advantage of that. I’ll do what I can. If you dare to say 
that she isn’t every bit as good and as gentle as your own 
sister, I tell you to your face you’re a liar.” 

‘‘ Anstruther !” cried Stratford, sitting up suddenly, ^‘do 
you know what you are saying? For your own sake and 
the lady’s be quiet.” 

“ I can’t help it,” repeated Fitz. “ Miss Keeling has 
been awfully kind to me, and I’m not going to hear her 
insulted. You can do what you like. Major North. If you 
want to fight. I’m ready.” 

“ Young idiot ! who wants to fight you ? ” growled Dick, 
lounging to the door with his hands in his pockets. “ I 

D 


50 


PEACE WITH HONOUR, 


didn’t know you were going to hold a lev^, Stratford. I 
think I’ll leave you to train the young idea for a little.” 

“ You haven’t answered me,” said Fitz, doggedly, barring 
his passage; hut Stratford interposed again. 

“Have, the goodness to sit down on that chair, young 
Anstruther. I want a straight talk with you.” The boy 
obeyed sullenly, and Stratford went on. “ As you are in 
my department, I suppose it falls to me to ask you, now 
that North is gone, whether you think you have done a 
very fine thing'?” 

“ I don’t think about it at all,” was the uncompromising 
response, “ but I know I should have been a cad not to 
have done it.” 

“Let us just consider what it is you have done,” said 
Stratford. “ You hear North and myself engaged in private 
conversation, and you thrust yourself into it uninvited.” 

“If it had been private I shouldn’t have heard it,” 
retorted Fitz. 

“Well, it was intended to be private, at any rate. 
CouldnT you have gone away, or have let us know that you 
were listening “? ” 

“ That’s what I would have done, certainly, if it hadn’t 
been for what North said. I couldn’t stand that.” 

“ No 1 and you felt bound to come in and tell us so. 
Now, Anstruther, I am going to speak to you as a friend. 
When you are a little older, you will know that men of the 
world — gentlemen — are not in the habit of bringing the 
names of ladies into a discussion. If they differ in opinion 
on some subject of this kind, they contrive to quarrel 
ostensibly about something else.” 

“ And you would have me let Major North say the vile 
things he was doing about Miss Keeling for all the hotel to 
hear, and yet pretend to take no notice *? ” 

“Allow me to remind you that North mentioned no 


AGAINST HIS WILL. 


51 


names. Any listener could only at best have made a guess 
at the identity of the lady in question, until you came in 
and published her name.” 

Fitz’s face was turning a dull red, and he said nothing. 
Stratford saw his advantage, and followed it up. 

“You ought to be very thankful that there are so few 
people about just at this time. If the place had been full, 
you might have done terrible harm. It would have been 
quite possible to remonstrate with North on general grounds, 
if you felt called upon to do it, without mentioning any 
names or calling anybody a liar, but to march in and identify 
a particular lady as the one of whom these things had been 
said, was unpardonable. So was the way in which you 
did it. Of course, I don’t know what your ideas as to duty 
and discipline may be, but it does not seem to me your 
business to reprove North at all.” 

“ I wouldn’t have done it, except in this case,” said Fitz, 
eagerly. “ I know he has led a rough life, and I can put 
up with a good deal from him, but when it comes to be- 
having like a cad to a lady, I had to speak.” 

“ And who gave you the right to make excuses for your 
superiors, or to bring accusations against them 'i ” demanded 
Stratford, in a tone which made the youthful censor shake 
in his shoes. “I think you have forgotten the position 
North holds, and the way in which he gained it. Any 
man in Khemistan would laugh at you if you told him that 
Dick North had been rude to a lady. He is one of the 
most chivalrous fellows that ever breathed. You may not 
know that when Fort Eahmat-Ullah was relieved, and the 
non-combatants conducted back into safety. North gave up 
his horse to a Eurasian’s clerk’s wife who had a sick child, 
and walked all the way himself.” 

“ I can’t make it out,” said Fitz, hopelessly. 

“ You see that it doesn’t do to judge a man merely on 


52 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


the strength of a momentary impression, then? Well, I 
will tell you in confidence what really happened this after- 
noon. It was this very chivalry of North’s which got him 
into trouble. You know that the lady of whom mention 
has unfortunately been made is very independent, and I 
gather that she persisted in refusing all North’s offers of 
help in some business or other. That hurt his feelings, 
and he came to my room to have his growl in peace, with 
the result you know. I don’t say he was right, but I do 
say you were wrong.” 

“ I’m awfully sorry,” said Fitz. “ I will apologise, Mr 
Stratford, if you say I ought.” 

“I don’t think it is advisable to make more of the 
matter. I will undertake to convey your sentiments to 
North, if you like.” 

“ Thank you ; and perhaps I had better apologise to 
Miss Keeling too?” 

“ No ! ” Stratford almost shouted. “ How old do you 
consider yourself, Anstruther ? Twenty ? I shouldn’t have 
thought it. Your ideas are what one might expect of a 
boy fresh from a dame’s school. You must learn never 
under any circumstances to trouble a lady about any affair 
of the kind. I really did not expect to have to undertake 
infant tuition when I started on this journey. If you have 
made a fool of yourself, don’t go and make things worse by 
worrying Miss Keeling.” 

“I’m awfully sorry,” murmured Fitz again. “Thank 
you for what you have been telling me, Mr Stratford. I 
wish I hadn’t said what I did to Major North, and yet I 
know I should do it again if I heard him talking like that, 
and I feel I ought to do it too.” 

“Your ideas are mixed,” said Stratford. “You had 
better go away and think things out a little by yourself,” 
and Fitz departed obediently. 


AGAINST HIS WILL. 


53 


Georgia did not return to the hotel again that evening. 
Dick, appealed to by Lady Haigh as the member of the 
party who had last seen her, said that he believed lAe had 
gone out into the country with some lady missionary or 
other, and might not be hack until the next day. The 
news drew from Sir Dugald a mild lamentation to the effect 
that he really thought they had done with missionaries 
when they left Baghdad, a remark for which he received a 
reproof from Lady Haigh afterwards in private. 

“ I wish you would not say that kind of thing before 
these new young men, Dugald. They don^t know how 
kind you were to the missionaries at Baghdad, and they 
may think you mean it,” a charge to which Sir Dugald 
offered no defence. It was by means of rebukes of this 
kind that Lady Haigh kept up the fiction dear to her soul 
that she ruled her husband with a rod of iron, and guided 
him gently into the paths it was well for him to take ; 
whereas those who watched the pair were of opinion that 
Sir Dugald’s was emphatically the ruling spirit, and that 
his mastery in his own household was so complete that he 
could afford to allow his wife to think otherwise without 
making any protest. 

In spite of Dick’s careless and positive words to Lady 
Haigh, it might have been observed that he lingered on 
the hotel verandah later than any one else that night, and 
that he appeared there again at a most unearthly hour in 
the morning, wearing the haggard and strained aspect char- 
acteristic of a man who has slept only by fits and starts, 
owing to the fear of oversleeping himself. One who did 
not know the circumstances of the case might have said he 
was there watching for some one, but that would have been 
manifestly absurds Whatever might be the cause of his 
unusual wakefulness, he was occupying his place of the day 
before when the creaking and groaning of wheels, gradually 


54 


PEACE WITfl HONOUR. 


coming nearer, announced an arrival. A few minutes later, 
as Georgia, tired and exhausted, descended from the mis- 
sionaries’ bullock-cart, which was wont to convey Miss 
Jenkins and Miss Guest, in company with a miniature 
harmonium, a stock of vernacular gospels, and occasionally 
a native Bible-woman, on their itinerating tours among the 
villages around, she discovered him waiting to receive her. 
She was so tired that she had dozed unconsciously in the 
bullock-cart, in spite of the rough music of the wheels and 
of the appalling jolts ; and now, awakened suddenly by the 
cessation of both sound and motion, she stood shivering 
and blinking in the grey twilight, a sadly unimpressive 
figure. Dick mercifully forbore to look at her as he took 
the bag from her hand and helped her up the steps, then 
settled her in his chair and shouted to the servants to hurry 
with the doctor lady’s cofiee. Georgia tried to protest 
feebly, but he was adamant. 

“ You must have something to eat before you go to bed, 
or we shall have you down with fever this evening. You 
will allow me to know something of the climate of Khemis- 
tan, I hope, though I am not a ‘professional’ man.” 

There was an unconscious emphasis on the adjective, 
which showed Georgia that coals of fire were being heaped 
upon her head in return for her words of the day before. 
But she did not respond to the challenge, for sh^ was too 
much exhausted for a war of words; and, moreover, the 
coffee was very acceptable, even though it was Major North 
to whom she owed it. When the sleepy and unwilling 
servants had made and brought the coffee, however, she 
paused before tasting it. 

“I can’t arpe with you now, Major North, but I just 
want to say this. It was worth while going through all the 
training, and some of it was bad enough at the time, simply 
for the sake of this night’s work. If I never attended 


AGAINST HIS WILL. 


55 


another case, I should be glad I was a doctor, if only to 
reineniher the happiness of those poor Christians in that 
village.” 

“ I wasn’t aware that I had attempted to argue,” said 
Dick, who was busily cutting what he imagined was thin 
bread and butter. ‘‘ There, eat that. Miss Keeling. The 
woman didn’t die, then?” 

“No, I hope she will do well. The people, heathen 
and Christians alike, took it as a miracle. If it helps 
Miss Guest and ]\Iiss Jenkins in their work, I shall be so 
thankful.” 

“ Time enough to consider that afterwards,” said Dick, 
as Georgia put down her cup and sat gazing into the 
twilight. “ If it helps you to an attack of fever, you 
won’t be thankful, nor shall I. By the bye, what hap- 
pened to your horse 1 I hope you didn’t meet with an 
accident 1 ” 

“ Oh no, but I was so dreadfully sleepy that I was afraid 
to ride, and the ladies lent me their bullock-cart. They are 
to send the horse back later in the day. You mustn’t think 
that I am generally so much overcome by sleep after spend- 
ing a night out of bed as I am now. When I was in 
hospital I thought nothing of sitting up. It is simply 
that I am out of practice.” 

“ Of course,” said Dick, politely, suppressing the retort 
he would infallibly have made had things been in their 
normal condition. It was so pleasant to be caring for 
Georgia in this way, without feeling the slightest desire to 
quarrel with her, that he began to wish she would be called 
out every night by her professional duties. What did his 
own broken slumbers signify ? At any rate, he had stolen 
a march on that young fool Anstruther now. He had not 
thought of seeing that Miss Keeling had something to eat 
when she came in. And Dick caught himself afterwards 


56 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


recalling with something like tenderness, a feeling which 
was obviously out of the question, the pressure of Miss 
Keeling’s hand as she shook hands with him before going 
indoors, and the tones of her voice as she said — 

“ Thank you so much, Major North. It was most kind 
of you to take all this trouble for me. I hope you won’t be 
very tired after getting up so early.” 

“ Oh, I just happened to he out here. I didn’t sleep very 
well,” he explained, airily, and went off well satisfied with 
his own readiness of resource, not dreaming that Georgia, 
in her own room, was saying bitterly to herself as she took 
down her hair — 

“ He need not have told me so particularly that he didn’t 
get up because of me. I knew he did not, of course, but 
it wasn’t necessary for him to say it. Well, I shall not 
presume upon his kindness, although he is afraid I may.” 

The natural consequence of this deceitful excess of candour 
on Dick’s part was, that when he met her next, he found 
that he had lost any ground which his ready services might 
have gained for him in Miss Keeling’s estimation. For 
him the events of the early morning had cast a glamour 
over the rest of the day, and when he saw Georgia again 
towards evening, he was prepared to meet her with the 
friendliness natural between two people who had found the 
barrier of prejudice which separated them partially broken 
down. But she received him with the easy graciousness 
she would have shown to the merest acquaintance, express- 
ing her gratitude for his kindness, indeed, but ignoring 
entirely the approach to something like intimacy which he 
thought had been established between them. Dick was 
not accustomed to be repulsed in this way, and when he 
overheard Georgia telling Sir Dugald how fortunate it had 
been for her that she found Major North up when she 
returned, and how kind he had been in getting her some 


AGAINST HIS WILL. 


67 


coffee, his wrath, if not loud, was deep. She was betraying 
what he liked to think of as a secret known only to their 
two selves, and making an ass of him before the other 
fellows. This led him to remember that, after all, circum- 
stances were unchanged. Georgia was still a doctor, and 
displayed no symptoms of being convinced, whether against 
her will or otherwise, by his arguments against the existence 
of medical women, or of discontinuing the practice of her 
profession. Nay more, Dick was beginning to see that it was 
unlikely she would ever be so convinced, and that if there 
was to be peace between them it must be on the basis of 
acquiescence in facts as they were. Hence, as he was still 
determined under no circumstances to extend even the 
barest toleration to lady doctors, it is not surprising that 
Dick felt himself a much injured man, and that his soul 
revolted a dozen times a -day against the conclusions at 
which he had been forced to arrive. 

As for Georgia, she continued to take pains to show him 
that she quite understood his view of the case, which she 
did not, and devoted herself largely to itinerating in the 
country round with Miss Jenkins and Miss Guest. She 
was welcomed on*, account of her medical skill in many 
places where they had not been able to gain a footing, and 
had the pleasure of knowing that she left these houses open 
to her friends for the future. The work proved to be so 
interesting that she was very sorry to leave it, and on the 
eve of departure she confided to Lady Haigh the resolution 
she had definitely formed to come back to Bab-us-Sahel 
when the Mission returned from Kubbet-ul-Haj, and to 
settle down with Miss Guest and Miss Jenkins. 

“Nonsense, Georgie ! you mustn’t throw away your 
talents like that,” cried Lady Haigh, aghast. 

“ But I should only stay here until they would allow me 
to settle on the frontier, of course,” said Georgia. 


58 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ I wish General Keeling were alive,” said Lady Haigh, 
irritably. “ He would very soon put a stop to these absurd 
schemes. Or I wish you were married. That would do as 
well.” 

“ But if that is one reason for my not marrying ? ” asked 
Georgia. 


CHAPTER V. 

ACROSS THE FRONTIER. 

“ When we come to ' the crest of this rise we shall be 
able to see Port Rahmat-IJllah in the distance,” said Strat- 
ford to Georgia. He had quitted his place in the long 
cavalcade formed by the members of the Mission and their 
baggage-animals, as it made its way across the broken 
ground, alternately sandy and rocky, which characterises 
the districts lying near the frontier of Khemistan, and had 
joined the two doctors, who were riding somewhat in ad- 
vance of the caravan in order to escape the dust. Dr 
Headlam turned back to the side of Lady Haigh, with 
whom Stratford had been riding, and Georgia looked round 
at her new cavalier with eyes of eager interest. 

“ It was Port Rahmat-Ullah that Major North relieved, 
wasn’t it?” she asked, although she knew perfectly well 
what the answer would be. 

“Yes, during our last little war but two or three. It 
is our farthest outpost on this frontier, and, when the 
tribes were up, they naturally set their hearts on getting 
hold of it. Of course the garrison has been strengthened 
since then, and the pax Britannica is quite effective in 


ACROSS THE FRONTIER. 


59 


the neighbourhood. We are to spend a few days at the 
fort, you know, before we bid farewell to civilisation, and 
make our dash into the desert, so that it is a comfort to 
feel that we need not expect to find ourselves besieged 
there. The only drawback is that Il^orth will be away.” 

“Away?” asked Georgia in astonishment. 

“Yes, didn’t you hear that he had got leave from the 
chief to go and see a friend away at Alibad, to the west of 
us ? They used to work together in the old days, but North 
had the chance of distinction and got his V.C. and his pro- 
motion, and the other man didn’t. I rather like to see 
North going off in this way to look him up — shows he 
doesn’t forget old friends, and that sort of thing — and 
perhaps he is just as glad not to be lionised at the fort. 
It’s a little hard on us, though.” 

“Yes, it is a little suggestive of ‘Hamlet’ with Hamlet 
left out,” observed Georgia, meditatively, determined that 
Mr Stratford should not perceive the unreasoning disap- 
pointment with which the news had infected her. 

“ And yet I don’t quite see what he could do for us if 
he was there, beyond giving us the gratification of behold- 
ing him on his native heath, so to speak,” pursued Strat- 
ford. 

“Oh, well,” said Georgia, carelessly, “I was reckoning 
on his being able to ride out with us along the way he 
went, and show us just where his different adventures 
happened. It would make it seem so much more real, 
you know.” She was speaking easily and naturally, bent 
on accounting to herself as well as to Mr Stratford for 
that absurd sense of disappointment, which was so keen 
that she feared it must before this have betrayed itself in 
face or voice. But were Dick’s adventures not real to 
her ? Had she not scanned the papers day by day at the 
time of the siege as eagerly as Mabel herself ? And when 


60 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


at last the full account reached England of the relief of 
the fort, and of the heroism of the man through whose 
enterprise it had been accomplished, had she not bowed 
her head upon the page of the ‘ Thunderer ’ and cried 
heartily, out of pure joy in the remembrance that this 
man had once loved her? Decidedly there was no need 
that the events attending the relief of Fort Rahmat-Ullah 
should he rendered more vivid for Georgia ; but Stratford 
seemed struck by the justice of her remark. 

“ That is quite true. Miss Keeling. Korth is treating us 
all very shabbily. I hope you will put it to him at lunch. 
He leaves us after the mid-day halt, you know.” 

But Miss Keeling did not choose to do anything of the 
kind, and when Sir Dugald appealed to her to join in con- 
demning North’s desertion, she smiled pleasantly as she 
answered, that no doubt Major North feared lest the at- 
traction of his presence at Fort Kahmat-Ullah should 
distract the attention of the visitors from the less inter- 
esting duties which ought to engross them. The remark 
was intended to make Dick uncomfortable ; and when 
Georgia saw that he was raging inwardly over the con- 
struction she had put upon his motives, absurd though it 
was, she felt happier, as having in some degree repaid him 
for the disappointment he had inflicted upon her, although, 
when he had ridden away, still fuming, she was filled with 
compunction, and spent some time in solitude and self- 
reproach, which meant bemoaning her own touchiness and 
calling herself names. 

Her sorrow was not allowed to sleep, for at Fort Rahmat- 
Ullah everything around seemed calculated to recall Dick 
to her memory. The scenes connected with his great ex- 
ploit were held in universal reverence, and from the officers 
of the detachment quartered in the fort nothing was heard 
but lamentations over his absence. On the very first even- 


ACROSS THE FRONTIER. 


61 


ing the new-comers were swept away by the general wave 
of enthusiasm, and allowed themselves to be personally con- 
ducted round the walls, in order to have the different local- 
ities rendered memorable by the siege pointed out to them. 
But this was merely an informal inspection, for the next 
morning an old European sergeant, who had taken part in 
the Belief of Lucknow, and was now employed as some kind 
of clerk in the fort, made his appearance, and expressed a 
readiness to act as cicerone during a second tour of the place. 

“ Evidently,” said Stratford, “ the thing to do here is to 
make the circuit of the walls once a-day, each time with a 
different guide.” 

“We shall get together a good collection of the different 
legends which are beginning to crystallise round North's 
exploit,” said Dr Headlam, who was a student of folk-lore. 
“ I suppose we must go, or we shall hurt this old chap’s 
feelings. He regards North as something like a demigod.” 

“ I think once round the walls is enough for me,” said 
Sir Dugald, “ so I must hope that the tutelary deity of the 
place will not be very furious at my neglect when we meet 
him again. What do the ladies intend to do 1 ” 

“ Oh, we are going, of course,” said Lady Haigh, promptly, 
unfurling a huge white umbrella. “ I always make a point 
of seeing and hearing everything I can about everybody.” 

Sir Dugald sighed almost imperceptibly, and buried him- 
self once more in his Ethiopian grammar, while the rest 
started out under the guidance of the old soldier. Constant 
practice on every new-comer who came in his way had 
made the sergeant perfect in the tale he had to tell. He 
knew exactly the points at which his hearers would be 
thrilled with horror or touched with sympathy, and he 
enjoyed keeping them on the rack of suspense when he 
reached a crisis in his story. He had been in the fort 
himself at the time of the siege, and Georgia held her 


62 


PEACE ^VITH HONOUR. 


breath as he described the wearing terror of the night- 
attacks, and the uneasiness of the long days, troubled by 
fears of the enemy without and of famine within the walls. 
Then she saw, as clearly as if she had been present, the 
little group of officers gathered in a shadowy corner of the 
ramparts one morning before night had given place to day. 
Dick was among them, disguised as one of the fair-skinned 
hillmen often met with along the Khemistan frontier, and 
he was going out alone, taking his life in his hand, in the 
forlorn hope of getting through the enemy and bringing 
help to the fort. So slight was the prospect of success 
that none but those who happened to be on the ramparts 
when he started knew of his expedition ; and the women in 
the place, who were not told about it for fear of raising 
baseless hopes only to be dashed again, thought that he 
had been killed in a night sortie and his body not recovered. 
One by one his fellows gripped his hand and bade God 
keep him in his enterprise ; then he was let down swiftly 
to the ground outside by means of a rope suspended in the 
shadow of the turret, and before the rope could be drawn 
up his form had melted into the shadows around. 

Almost immediately on setting out he was met by 
perhaps the gravest of the perils he was to encounter. 
Descending a rugged hill into a dry watercourse, which he 
hoped would afford him a measure of cover, the loose 
stones rolling under his feet betrayed him to the drowsy 
watchman of a party of the enemy, who were vsleeping, 
wrapped in their mantles, round a smouldering fire. They 
were between him and the fort, and there was no hope of 
retreat ; but as the sentry’s bullet came skipping over the 
rocks past him, and the sleepers, on the alert at once, sat 
up and grasped their weapons, Dick’s resolution was taken. 
With a cry of joy he rushed towards the fire and inquired 
eagerly and incoherently in Khemistani whether the fort 


ACROSS THE FRONTIER. 


63 


had fallen and he was too late to take his part in the 
plundering. The party upon whom he had chanced were 
all good Moslems, and their rage was extreme on discovering 
by his dress that the intruder was a hillman, and that they 
had been awakened because a wretch of an idolater was 
trying to get a share of their booty. He was driven from 
their camp with blows and curses, and ordered to tell his 
people that any further attempt to participate in the ex- 
pected spoils would be met with force of arms. The same 
ruse helped him again and again during the day. On 
sighting a part of the enemy, he had only to approach 
them humbly and detail what had happened to him, asking 
for redress, when the same fate would befall him immedi- 
ately on his mentioning what his crime had been. Every 
chase took him farther from the fort and nearer to civilisa- 
tion, and at last he fell in with a small party of hillmen, 
fleeing from the hated Moslems into territory which was 
still British, who allowed him to join himself to them. 

But this meeting landed him in another danger, for 
although he could speak the hill dialect well enough to pass 
muster with the lowlanders, he could not deceive those 
whose native tongue it was. For some time he parried 
questions by declaring that he belonged to a different tribe ; 
but the hillmen grew more and more suspicious, thinking 
that he must be a -spy from the camp of their hereditary 
foes. They kept a close watch on him, and he gathered 
that they intended to deliver him up to the first British 
patrol they came across. This would have suited his pur- 
pose excellently but for the extremely slow rate at which 
his new friends travelled, and he seized the first opportunity 
that offered itself of eluding their vigilance and striking off 
across country to the nearest fort. His late entertainers 
pursued him ; but he reached the fort first and delivered 
his message, so that when the hillmen arrived they were 


64 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


electrified to behold him in uniform assisting in the pre- 
parations for the relief expedition. Thence his course had 
been, as Fitz Anstruther remarked irreverently, “ a trium- 
phal procession,” an observation which the old soldier who 
was acting as guide took in very good part. 

“Ay,” he said, “and we are all proud of him here. We 
don’t have many ladies come to the fort, especially since the 
rising ; but to hear some of them talk that have been here 
this last year, you’d think the whole place wasn’t nothing 
but a memorial of him, though there ! we’re just about as 
bad ourselves. When a new subaltern joins — though it 
ain’t often we get them raw enough — the officers take him 
round and show him everything. When they get to the 
north face they tell him, ‘ This here was named after Major 
North. He started on his journey down the slope.’ There 
wasn’t more than one of them took it right in ; but the rest 
are always puzzled, and don’t like to contradict. By the 
time they’ve got it worked out in their minds they’re as 
proud of the Major as any of us, and had rather follow 
North of the Khemistan Horse than the Commander-in- 
Chief. Ah ! he’s a brave chap and a cool one, and we were 
downright mad when we knew we were not to have him 
back here ; but he’ll want all his bravery and all his level- 
headedness where you’re going.” 

“ Come, sergeant, you mustn’t frighten the ladies,” said 
Stratford. 

“ Frighten the ladies ! ” repeated the old man, scornfully. 
“ I could a deal sooner frighten any of you gentlemen, and 
no offence to you, sir, neither. I’ve seen a good many fron- 
tier ladies in my time, and I can tell that these two is just 
as full of spirit as an egg is full of meat. Looking out for 
adventures, ma’am, ain’t you?” to Georgia. “I thought 
so ; and her ladyship there, she’s been through so much 
that she ain’t afraid of nothing.” 


ACROSS THE FRONTIER. 


65 


‘‘This is reassuring,” said Lady Haigh. “I hope you 
young men are now convinced what desirable travelling 
companions we are?” 

“ I don’t so much know about that,” said the old sergeant, 
reflectively. “ I suppose as you’ll bundle yourselves up in 
veils, like the women of the country, when you get to 
Ethiopia, my lady?” 

“Yes, I hear that we must,” returned Lady Haigh. 

“ That’s all right, then, and I’ll make hold to give the 
young lady a bit of advice. Don’t you go playing no tricks 
with your veil, ma’am ; you keep it down when there’s any 
Ethiopians about. I could tell you of times when a whole 
caravan has been cut up for the sake of one woman, and she 
made a slave of.” 

“ Miss Keeling, you must swallow the warning for the 
sake of the compliment contained in it,” said Dr Headlam, 
while Eitz glared speechlessly at the sergeant, who went on 
in a meditative voice — 

“ Ko, it don’t so much signify what the woman is like, 
so long as she’s difi’erent to theirs. Hot but what I dare 
he bound as they’d find they’d caught a Tartar in this 
young lady. She would he queen instead of slave before 
they’d done with her.” 

“ This is really too flattering ! ” said Georgia, her face 
flushing. “Have you anything more to show us, sergeant?” 

“ I’m afraid as that’s all, ma’am. But don’t you go for 
to he offended at my plain speaking. I could tell you was 
a lady of spirit by your going to Kubbet-ul-Haj at all. And, 
bless you, you can do near everything with these fellows if 
you talk big a little, and don’t let ’em see as you are shak- 
ing in your shoes all the time.” 

The old man’s face as he enunciated this doctrine was so 
comical that Georgia accepted the implied apology, and the 
affair ended in a laugh. 

E 


66 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ It never struck me that we were to wear veils as a pro 
tection,” said Georgia to Lady Haigh as they returned to 
their quarters. “ I thought it was only for fear of outraging 
the people’s feelings.” 

“ If it had been only that,” returned Lady Haigh, “ I 
should certainly have refused on principle to wear a veil. 
You know that I have knocked about a good deal, my dear. 
When Sir Dugald asked me to marry him, he said he felt 
quite guilty in trying to allure me away from all my friends 
and my work, and I seized the opportunity of stipulating 
for the very thing I wanted. I said I shouldn’t mind leav- 
ing everything in the slightest if he would only promise to 
take me with him wherever he went. He did promise, and 
I have gone everywhere with him — to some very strange 
places indeed. I have often been where no English lady 
had ever been seen before ; but I have always refused to 
cover my face. They used to tell me that the people were 
not accustomed to see a woman unveiled. ‘ Well, then, 
they must become accustomed to it,’ I always said. Then 
they suggested that it might outrage their religious senti- 
ments ; but, as I pointed out, people must learn not to let 
their feelings be hurt so easily. But this time it was differ- 
ent. When it came to be a case of endangering the safety 
of the whole Mission, Sir Dugald told me that the choice 
lay between his breaking his promise and leaving me be- 
hind and my wearing a veil. I did not see it at all, because 
the Kubbet-ul-Haj people ought to accustom themselves to 
seeing new things, and I really yielded solely on account of 
you. Dugald ” — they had reached their own verandah by 
this time — “ didn’t I teU you that I only consented to wear 
a veil for Miss Keeling’s sake ? ” 

“ I believe you have mentioned the fact more than once, 
now that I come to think of it,” returned Sir Dugald, look- 
ing up from his book. 


ACROSS THE FRONTIER. 


67 


“ But really, Lady Haigh, I am not afraid,” said Georgia. 
“ If you think that the old man was only talking nonsense, 
I will join you in organising a protest against Ethiopian 
customs with the gre'atest pleasure, for I should much prefer 
not wearing a veil.” 

“ Oh, hut it really is necessary for you, my dear. It is 
different in my case ; I am old, and I never was anything 
much to look at, and I am indubitably married. But sup- 
pose the King should see you, and take it into his head 
to want to make you his fifteenth wife ” 

“ As a Mohammedan he is not allowed more than four,” 
interposed Sir Dugald, mildly. 

“ Oh, I am sure he doesn’t count the ones he has killed or 
divorced ! ” said Lady Haigh. “ Well, in any case, Georgie, 
it would he very awkward. You might refuse to marry 
him, hut he wouldn’t take a refusal. He would simply 
request Sir Dugald to settle the matter. If he was told 
that it was the custom in England to allow ladies their 
choice, he would say that at Kuhhet-ul-Haj you must do 
as the Kubbet-ul-Hajis did. Then, if you still refused, he 
might do as the old man suggested, and murder us all to 
get hold of you. So you see that it is really necessary for 
you to cover your face, and I do it to keep you company.” 

“ But with the veil, you will, of course, adopt the other 
dictates of Eastern etiquette,” said Sir Dugald, “ which 
forbid a lady to speak to any man not of her immediate 
family ? ” 

“ That would be dreadfully dull for me,” said Lady Haigh. 
“ What should I do when you were busy?” 

“Far worse for me,” cried Georgia. “ I protest against 
such treatment, Sir Dugald ! Do you mean to condemn me 
to perpetual silence '? I have no relations of any kind here.” 

“ Ah, Eastern society makes no provision for the JSTew 
Woman,” observed Sir Dugald. 


68 


PEACE WITH HONODE. 


Georgia groaned. 

I am so dreadfully tired of that name,” she said. But 
I believe, Sir Dugald, that Eastern etiquette would oblige 
Lady Haigh and me to ride humbly behind with the ser- 
vants while you gentlemen were cantering gaily in front — 
wouldn^t it ? Is that to be the order of our going 1 ” 

“ Ho, I think we must make up our minds to disregard 
Ethiopian opinion in that respect,” said Sir Dugald. “ Don^t 
be afraid. Miss Keeling, you shall lay aside your veils in the 
tents and when we get to our own quarters at Kubbet-ul- 
Haj. It is only in the streets and on the march that you 
need wear them.” 

“ And really they are not so very bad,” said Lady Haigh, 
shaking out a heap of white drapery. “ When I knew we 
must make up our minds to such garments I determined 
that they should be as little trouble as possible, so I got 
these hurhas made. I remembered seeing the women wear- 
ing them in the Panjab long ago. You see, the hurha is 
simply put on over everything, and covers you from head to 
foot without an opening — merely that embroidered lattice- 
work for the eyes. It gives you no trouble ; whereas the 
tsar, which the Baghdadi women wear, and which poor 
Cecil Egerton was obliged to adopt when she was governess 
at the Palace, is nothing but a sheet pure and simple. You 
have to hold it together in front with one hand and over 
your face with the other. Ho matter how bad the weather 
may be, you can never spare a hand to hold up your dress 
or your sheet drops ; you must just trail through the mud. 
I could not stand that.” 

Georgia acknowledged thankfully the wisdom of Lady 
Haigh’s remarks, and when the day arrived on which the 
actual journey to Kubbet-ul-Haj was to begin, she put on 
the hurha without a murmur. The start was an imposing 
sight, for most of the officers in the fort accompanied the 


ACROSS THE FRONTIER. 


69 


Mission as far as the Ethiopian frontier, and the rest of the 
garrison lined the walls and sped the parting guests with a 
rousing cheer. The servants and baggage had started earlier 
in the day, and when they had been caught up a halt was 
made for lunch, after which the travellers delivered them- 
selves into the hands of the body of Ethiopian troops who 
had been sent to meet them on the frontier and escort them 
to the capital, and the British officers returned to Fort 
Eahmat-Ullah. Dick IS’orth came riding up just in time 
to fall into his place in the cavalcade, and the long array of 
riders and baggage-animals took their way across the frontier. 

The cavalry escort, of which one portion headed the pro- 
cession, while the remainder brought up the rear, was not 
calculated, so far as its outward aspect was concerned, to 
allay any apprehensions that might have been fluttering the 
breasts of the timid. Its members were wild, reckless-look- 
ing fellows, evidently ready to go anywhere and do any- 
thing, but apparently quite as well qualified to rob their 
convoy as to protect it. Uniformity of dress or accoutre- 
ments among them there was none ; but they resembled one 
another in that they were all fierce of face, all unbridled 
of speech, all extremely dirty, and all armed to the teeth 
with a wonderfully miscellaneous collection of weapons. 
It seemed almost madness to take ladies into the heart 
of a country which, until very lately, had been actively 
hostile, under the guardianship of such men as these, and 
the younger members of the Mission felt their hearts sink 
suddenly with an unwonted feeling of apprehension as they 
took their last look at the fort — that isolated outpost of 
Britain and civilisation on the borders of barbarism. But 
Sir Dugald’s impassive face betrayed no emotion what- 
ever as he halted beside the track to allow the caravan to 
file past him, and the younger men took comtort as they 
remembered that their leader was one who, although he had 


70 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


not hitherto had the opportunity of distinguishing himself 
in a wide field, was reputed never to have made a mistake 
in the many minor hut still important duties with which 
he had been intrusted. 

Nor had Sir Dugald himself started for Kubbet-ul-Haj 
with a heart so light as to induce him to neglect any pre- 
caution that lay in his power. When it had once been 
ascertained that the passage of an escort of British, or even 
of Indian, troops through Ethiopian territory was out of 
the question. Sir Dugald agreed at once to intrust the 
safety of the Mission to the King’s own soldiers. But 
he bestowed special care on the selection of the servants 
who were to accompany the expedition, down to the very 
camel-men, choosing, so far as was possible, old soldiers, 
and these from the frontier, where there was always a 
hearty feeling of dislike simmering against the Ethiopians. 
These men might be relied upon to hold together in the 
strange country, and to show a bold front in case of neces- 
sity ; and they also despised the Ethiopians far too much to 
associate with them, which lessened the likelihood both of 
quarrels and plots. With the exception of the wives of a 
few of these men, there were only two women among the 
servants — Lady Haigh’s elderly Syrian attendant Marta, and 
Georgia’s maid. This was a Khemistani girl named Eahah, 
a waif from the frontier who had found her way in some 
mysterious manner to Bab-us-Sahel, and after being handed 
over to the missionary ladies to be taken care of, had been 
trained by Miss Guest — who suffered much in -the process — 
as a lady’s-maid. Her name was supposed by the learned to 
mean rest,” but her character was not in accordance with 
it, for there was no rest for any human being that had any- 
thing to do with Eahah. Her chief recommendations for 
the post she now held -were her undeniable cleverness with 
her fingers and some knowledge of the Ethiopian language. 


ACROSS THE FRONTIER. 


71 


wliicli might prove useful to her mistress in communicating 
with female patients, while she had already learnt, during 
the past few weeks, to render considerable assistance to 
Georgia as anaesthetist and dresser. 

The caravan which was composed of such incongruous 
elements found its journey more peaceful than might have 
been anticipated. The members of the escort, although 
somewhat addicted to the snapping up of unconsidered 
trifles, were capable of frightening away any other robbers, 
and on the march were content to keep at a respectful 
distance from their charges. In this foreign country there 
could be none of those digressions from the track which 
had proved so pleasant in Khemistan, but the members of 
the Mission were not altogether without subjects of interest 
to occupy them. Georgia and Dr Headlam were making a 
collection of all the birds, plants, and insects they met with, 
for in this respect Ethiopia was new ground. Sir Dugald 
was ruthless in his refusal to allow more than one collection 
to be carried with the expedition, and the rival collectors 
were thus deprived of the stimulus of competition. The 
only thing to be done was to allow the first finder of a 
new species to monopolise the glory of its possession until 
a finer specimen was discovered, and in this finding Dr 
Headlam complained that Georgia had an unfair advan- 
tage, since Fitz was always at her service and eager to 
help her. But in spite of little squabbles of this kind 
everything went pleasantly, chiefly owing, Fitz said, to 
the fact that North was generally so busily occupied with 
his duties of noting the configuration of the country and 
the Avindings of the track, with a view to map-making, that 
lie had no time to ride with the others and enter into 
conversation. Since his return to the rest of the party 
he had scarcely spoken to Georgia, and she told herself 
that it was better so. 


72 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


This was the state of affairs when the march came to 
an end ; and the Mission, amid the thunder of very rickety 
cannon, the shouting of the populace, and the shrill wel- 
coming cries of the women, entered the city of Kubbet- 
ul-Haj. 


CHAPTER VL 

AN OFFER OP CO-OPERATION. 

“ The King of all Kings, the Upholder of the Universe, 
places this hovel at the disposal of his high eminence the 
Queen of England’s Envoy, and entreats that he will deign 
to use it as his own,” said the sleek official who had been 
deputed to meet the travellers and bring them into the 
town, as he paused opposite the doorway of a large house 
and indicated with extended hand that the end of the 
journey had been reached. 

“In other words, this imposing building is to be our 
residence for the present,” said Sir Dugald, riding into 
the courtyard and turning round. “Allow me to wel- 
come you to Kubbet-ul-Haj, ladies.” 

“It is not as good as Baghdad,” said Lady Haigh, look- 
ing round disparagingly on the whitewashed walls ; “ but 
I daresay we shall be very comfortable. After all, it won’t 
be for long.” 

“Express my thanks to the King,” said Sir Dugald 
pointedly to the messenger, “ and tell him that the pleas- 
antness of our quarters will make us anxious to prolong 
our stay in his city.” 

The official, well pleased, stayed only to point out the en- 


AN OFFER OF CO-OPERATION. 


73 


trance to the second courtyard of which the house boasted, 
and to intimate that if the accommodation provided should 
prove to he too limited, another house could easily be se- 
cured, and then took his departure ; while the new arrivals 
passed under an archway into the inner court, to find 
facing them the chief rooms of the establishment. These 
were evidently intended as Sir Dugald’s quarters, and Lady 
Haigh surveyed them with high approval 

“ Come ! ” she said. “We shall not be so badly off after 
all. I was beginning to be afraid we should be as much 
crowded as you were at Agra in the Mutiny, Dugald. I 
think the rooms on that side wiU do nicely for you, 
Georgia” 

“ I don’t know whether you will all be able to find quarters 
in the first block of buildings, gentlemen,” said Sir Dugald 
to his staff when he had helped his wife and Georgia to 
dismount, and they had gone indoors to explore. “ I must 
have Mr Kustendjian there, for he may be wanted at any 
moment, and I doubt whether that will leave you rooms 
enough.” 

“ If any one has to seek quarters outside, I hope I may 
be the favoured man,” said Dr Headlam. “Judging by 
the sights I saw as we came through the streets, and the 
cries for medicine which were addressed to me, there is 
an enormous amount of disease here, and I shall have my 
hands pretty full if I begin to try any outside practice. 
I think I am justified in believing that you would approve 
of such a course. Sir Dugald 1 It could only make the 
Mission more, popular.” 

“ By all means, if you wish it ; but don’t wear yourself 
out with doctoring aU Kubbet-ul-Haj, and forget that you 
came here as surgeon to the Mission. You think you will 
do better if you are lodged outside 1 ” 

“ Well, I didn’t quite like the idea of bringing all the 


74 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


filth and rascality of Kubbet-ul-Haj into the Mission head- 
quarters, hut that would remove the objection. I think it 
would he both safer and more agreeable for all of us if you 
would allow me to camp in some other house.” 

“ Then perhaps you could take that collection of yours 
over to your new quarters as well as your other belongings ? 
It is not altogether the most delightful of objects.” 

“ Either as to sight or smell,” put in Dick I^orth. “ Those 
beasts you have preserved in spirits are enough to give a man 
the horrors, doctor.” 

“Oh, our much -maligned masterpieces shall share my 
quarters, by all means,” said the doctor. “ If Miss Keeling 
breaks her heart over parting with the collection, don’t 
blame me.” 

“ Miss Keeling will probably bear the loss with equanim- 
ity,” said Sir Dugald. “Natural history collections are 
not exactly ladies’ toys. At any rate, if she is uneasy about 
the state of her pet specimens you can bring her bulletins 
respecting them at meal- times. We shall see you as usual 
at tiffin and at dinner, I suppose, doctor And you know 
that Lady Haigh is always glad to welcome you at tea.” 

“ I shall certainly not decline such an invitation in favour 
of solitary meals hastily partaken of amongst the specimens,” 
said Dr Headlam. 

“ Then we may consider that settled,” said Sir Dugald. 
“ I think we may regard ourselves as fairly fortunate in our 
quarters here. What is your opinion, Stratford 'I ” 

“ I think the place is very well adapted for our business, 
certainly,” returned Stratford. “The general public will 
only be admitted to the outer court, I supposed’ 

“ Yes ; the large room on the ground-floor of your quar- 
ters will serve as our durbar-hall,” said Sir Dugald, “ and 
3he attendants of the Ethiopian officials can remain on the 
verandah.- This inner court must be sacred to the ladies, 


AN OFFER OF CO-OPERATION. 


75 


so that they may go about unveiled. No Ethiopian can 
be allowed to cross the threshold without an invitation, and 
only those must be invited who know something of English 
usages and will not he shocked by what they see. The 
raised verandah before the house will no doubt serve as a 
drawing-room. What do you think of the place, North?” 

“Good position for defence,” said Dick, meditatively. 
“You hold the outer court as long as you can, and then 
fall back upon the first block of buildings. When that 
becomes untenable, you blow it up and retire upon the 
second block.” 

“ Until you have to blow that up too, and yourself with 
it, I suppose ? ” said Sir Dugald. “ For the ladies’ sake, I 
must say I hope we shall not have to put the defensive 
capabilities of the house to such a severe test. Well, 
gentlemen, we shall meet at dinner. No doubt you will 
like to get your things settled a little. Your own servants 
will be able to find quarters in your block, but the rest must 
occupy the buildings round the outer court.” 

When Sir Dugald had thus declared his will the party 
separated, the staff proceeding to their quarters in Bache- 
lors’ Buildings, as the first block was unanimously named, 
and allotting the rooms among themselves on the principle 
of seniority; while the doctor went house-hunting with the 
aid of a minor official who had been left in the outer court 
to give any help or information that might be needed. 
Under his auspices a much smaller house, only separated 
from the headquarters of the Mission by a narrow street, 
was secured, and hither Dr Headlam removed with his ser- 
vants and the famous collection. When the members of 
the Mission met at dinner they had shaken down fairly well 
in their several abodes, and after a little inevitable grum- 
bling over accustomed luxuries which were here unattain- 
able, they displayed a disposition to regard the situation with 


76 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


contentment and the rest of mankind with charity. Sir 
Dugald noted down certain points on which it would he 
necessary to appeal for assistance to the urbane gentleman 
who had instituted the party into their habitation, while 
Lady Haigh promised help in matters which could be set 
right by feminine intuition and a needle and thread, and 
peace reigned at headquarters. 

It was not until dinner was over and the members of the 
Mission were partaking of coffee on the terrace, with the 
lights of the dining-room behind mingling incongruously 
with the moonlight around them and outshining the twink- 
ling lamps visible here and there in the loftier habitations 
outside the walls of the house, that an interruption occurred, 
and the quiet was broken by the entrance of Chanda Lai, 
Sir Dugald's bearer, with a visiting-card, which he handed 
to his master on a tray. 

“ What’s this, bearer ? ” asked Sir Dugald, impatiently. 

“ Highness, the sahib bade me bring it to you.” 

“The sahib? Here? In Kubbet-ul-Haj ? Who is he? 
What is he doing here ? ” Sir Dugald’s brow was darken- 
ing ominously. 

“ Highness, I know not. I said that the hurra sahib re- 
ceived no visitors this evening, and the sahib said, ‘ Take 
this to your hurra sdhib^ and tell him that my name is 
Heekis, and that I wish to see him.’ ” 

“ ‘ Elkanah B. Hicks. “ Empire City Crier,” ’ ” read Sir 
Dugald from the card in his hand in a tone of stupefaction. 
“ In the name of all that is abominable ! ” he cried, with 
lively disgust, “it’s a newspaper correspondent, and an 
American at that, and here before us ! ” 

“ I know the name,” said Stratford. “ Hicks was the 
‘ Crier ’ correspondent who made himself so prominent over 
the Thracian business. He was arrested and conducted to 
the frontier while the second revolution was going on.” 


AN OFFEK OF GO -OPERATION. 


77 


The very worst kind of busybody ! ” said Sir Dugald, 
wrathfully. ‘‘1 only wish that Drakovics had shot him 
when he had him safe. What does he mean by poking 
himself in here?” 

“He is in search of marketable ‘copy,’ without a doubt,” 
said Stratford, “and he is taking the most direct way 
to get it. He has a fancy for talking and behaving like 
a sort of semi-civilised Artemus Ward, which takes in 
a good many people ; but he is considered about the 
smartest man on the ‘Crier’ staff, and that is saying a 
good deal” 

“ Whatever his fancies may be,” growled Sir Dugald, “ I 
don’t see that they are any excuse for the man’s thrusting 
himself upon me out of business hours without the ghost of 
an introduction.” 

“ Still, dear,” said Lady Haigh, “ we had better have him 
in and be friendly to him. In a place like this white 
people are bound to hang together, and I dare say we shall 
find him very pleasant.” 

“ Bring the sahib in,” said Sir Dugald, shortly, to Chanda 
Lai, adopting his wife’s pacific suggestion, but without any 
lightening of countenance ; and presently the bearer ushered 
in a lank, sallow man, rather over middle age, with a 
straggling lightish beard, and hair that seemed to stand 
somewhat in need of the scissors. As Fitz said afterwards, 
if he had only worn striped trousers and a starred waist- 
coat, Mr Hicks would have represented to the life the 
Brother Jonathan of American, not English, caricaturists. 
Sir Dugald received his visitor with frigid politeness, and 
the staff, taking their cue from him, did the same ; but Mr 
Hicks ‘ appeared to feel no embarrassment, although the 
tender hearts of Lady Haigh and Georgia were moved to 
pity on his account. He was duly supplied with coffee ; 
and when Georgia had passed him a plate of cakes he 


78 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


stretched his long limbs comfortably as he reclined in a 
cane chair and beamed upon the party. 

“ It makes one feel real high-toned,” he said, slowly, “ to 
be waited upon out here at the back of creation by two 
lovely and cultured daughters of Albion.” 

Sir Dugald gave him a stony glance in reply ; while the 
younger men, uncertain whether the remark was to be 
considered as due to deliberate rudeness or to ignorance, 
wavered between amusement and indignation. Lady Haigh 
answered pleasantly but coldly — 

“We are not accustomed to be treated to quite such 
elaborate compliments, Mr Hicks ; but no doubt American 
manners differ from ours. So I have always understood, 
at least.” 

“ You bet they do, ma’am ! ” was Mr Hicks’ reply, de- 
livered with almost startling emphasis. “When your nigger 
let me in just now, and the General there stepped forward 
and said, ‘ Mr Hicks, I presume 1 ’ hanged if I didn’t think 
I had got into a Belgravian drawing-room, or into Central 
Africa with Stanley, instead of finding a party of civilised 
white people in the midst of Ethiopia ! I guess I’m not 
cut out for shows of this kind, any way.” 

“You prefer a European post, perhaps?” suggested 
Stratford, as Sir Dugald remained silent. 

“ You may consider that proved, sir, some ! I can fly 
around with any man in a civilised country, and back 
myself to send home more ‘ copy ’ than the paper can use ; 
but I was a fool to cable back ‘ Done ! ’ when the Editor 
wired, ‘ Can you start for Ethiopia next week, and keep an 
eye on this Mission business ? ’ Set me down in a telegraph 
bureau, with a dozen newspaper men there before me and 
only one wire, and I’ll bet you my bottom dollar that my 
despatch will go over that wire before any of the other 
fellows’; but when it comes to organising a dromedary- 


AN OFFER OF CO-OPERATION. 


79 


service to carry my ‘copy’ week by week, it makes me 
tired of life.” 

“ If you find it so hard to send your letters, how did you 
surmount the difficulties of getting up here yourself?” 
asked Sir Dugald, with a faint appearance of interest. 

“ I must confess to getting along by taking your name in 
vain, General,” returned Mr Hicks, easily. “ I travelled 
around for a week or two in Khemistan, just to throw your 
frontier people off the scent and to make friends with some 
of the natives. They smuggled me across into Ethiopia in 
disguise, and I told the people here that I was sent out to 
write about the Mission and note how it was received, 
which was quite true. Consequently I was taken every- 
where for an emissary of your Government, which has 
smoothed the way for me considerably. I guess it will 
gratify you to know that your name was a passport most 
everywhere.” 

“Having heard you were a newspaper correspondent,” 
said Sir Dugald, “ I might have guessed what your methods 
would be.” 

“We military people,” said Lady Haigh, again interposing 
as peacemaker, “ have an odd prejudice against special cor- 
respondents, Mr Hicks. It is awkward, but you must be 
kind enough to excuse it.” 

“It’s nothing to what I should feel if I was in the 
General’s place, ma’am,” said Mr Hicks, affably. “I 
wouldn’t have one in my camp for any money. They 
might pillory me throughout the Press of the Union, but 
so long as I kept them off I should smile. How, General, 
after that handsome acknowledgment, I hope we are 
friends ? ” 

“ I hope so,” returned Sir Dugald, still unsoftened. 

“ I should like to do a deal with you, General,” continued 
Mr Hicks. “ If you could spare me a minute or two alone, 


80 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


I think I could convince you that we have interests in 
common.” 

“ Work is over at this time of night,” said Sir Dugald, 
icily. “ If I can be of service to you in any little difficulty 
with the authorities here, or with regard to the postal 
arrangements, I shall be happy to see you in the morning. 
My office hours begin at six.” 

“ Do you wish to name any special time. General ] ” 

“By no means, Mr Hicks.” Sir Dugald fixed a blank 
uncomprehending gaze on the American’s face. “It is my 
duty to support the interests of the subjects of friendly 
powers wherever I can, and I hope you will attend to state 
your case at the time most convenient to yourself.” 

“ I guess you don’t understand me, General. I can fix 
my own affairs, thank you. What I want is to arrange a 
trade. You give me what I want, and I give you what you 
want, do you see? I should prefer to speak to you in 
private as to the exact terms.” 

“ Any proposal you have to make to me must be uttered 
in the presence of these gentlemen, if you please.” 

Mr Hicks laughed uneasily. 

“Well, your way of doing business licks Wall Street,” 
he said. “ What I have to say is, you give me the infor- 
mation I may need as to the plans and intentions of your 
Government, and I will give you some pieces of news with- 
out which you will do nothing here.” 

“ You are an accredited agent of the United States 
Government?” asked Sir Dugald. 

“Hot at all, sir. I represent the ‘Empire City Crier.’” 

“And I represent her Britannic Majesty. I regret that 
the ‘ deal ’ to which you have referred cannot come off.” 

“ Then your Mission will be a failure, General.” 

“ Pardon me, but that is no concern of yours.” 

“Well, you are the first man I ever knew bring a wife 


AN OFFER OF CO-OPERATION. 


81 


and daughter into a place like this on such an almighty poor 
chance. I don’t know what you think, gentlemen ” — Mr 
Hicks wheeled round in his chair and glanced at the rest of 
the party — “ hut I say — and I know something about this 
place — that you have a precious small hope of getting out of 
Kuhhet-ul-Haj with your lives if your Mission does fail.” 

“You really must excuse my staff from commenting on 
your interesting piece of information, Mr Hicks,” said Sir 
Dugald, smoothly; “hut they are not accustomed to be set 
up as a court of appeal over me.” 

“ May I ask, General, whether you know why Fath-ud- 
Din, the Grand Vizier, did not ride out to welcome you 
to-day 'i ” 

“ I believe he was ill,” said Sir Dugald, stifling a yawn. 

“ He was so sick that he was riding past my house to the 
bath at the moment you were entering the city on the other 
side.” 

“I don’t quite see,” said Dick, “why a piece of bad 
manners on Fath-ud- Din’s part should be such a fearful 
omen for us.” 

“I guess you think yourself dreadful smart. Colonel,” 
returned Mr Hicks ; “ but you soldier officers are a bit too 
cute sometimes. Old Fath-ud-Din is a bad crowd generally, 
and he means mischief. Leaving him out of account, what 
do you think has happened to your friend the Crown Prince, 
Rustam Khan 1 Has he dropped in on you here yet ? ” 

“Scarcely,” said Dick. “We have not arrived so very 
long, you know.” 

“ That is so.” Mr Hicks disregarded the sarcasm implied 
in the words. “ But I know something of that young man, 
and I can tell you he would have been around here like 
greased lightning if he had had the chance. He was afraid 
of losing his scalp if he attempted it. The fact is, you 
gentlemen are behind the times.” 

F 


82 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Ah, but we’ll be truly grateful if you’ll enlighten us a 
little,” put in Eitz, in a most alluring brogue, which he kept 
for use on special occasions. 

Mr Hicks glanced sharply at Sir Dugald. The slightest 
sign of interest or eagerness would have determined him to 
impart no information except at a price, hut the look of re- 
pressed weariness which was just visible in the half-light 
served to pique the American into doing his best to surprise 
and startle his bored and scornful host. He leant hack in 
his chair with his thumbs stuck in his waistcoat pockets. 

“We think we are pretty slick in fixing things out 
West,” he said, “ hut they have by no means a had notion 
of history-making out here. When it was arranged that 
your Mission should start. General, Kustam Khan was in 
high favour with his father, old Eath-ud-Din was biting his 
nails in disgrace, and the people were all in love with the 
English. But we have had a Palace revolution since then. 
The King’s second wife (she is Eath-ud-Din’s sister, and 
they all hang together) gave her husband one of her slave- 
girls, the prettiest she could pick up anywhere, and that 
brought her into high favour, and all her relations with her. 
She is young Antar Khan’s mother, and he is prime favour- 
ite now, while Eustam Khan and his mother, the King’s 
first wife, are nowhere. Curious what little things bring 
about these big changes, isn’t iti” 

“ The details of these Palace scandals are scarcely edify- 
ing,” remarked Sir Dugald, to whom Mr Hicks had all 
along been addressing himself. 

“ Probably not. General ; hut they are often important, 
and there is an outside circumstance that complicates this 
one. Erom your point of view it was slightly unfortunate 
that an envoy should turn up a week or two ago with pres- 
ents and offers of alliance from Scythia and Keustria. I 
guess those two States are hunting in couples. It’s not the 


AN OFFER OF CO-OPERATION. 


83 


first time they’ve done it, and they generally make a good 
thing ont of it. Does this alter your way of looking at 
things at all, General^” 

^‘Not at all,” returned Sir Dugald, placidly. 

“Now come. General,” said Mr Hicks, leaning forward 
and extending a long forefinger to tap Sir Dugald on the 
knee, “you and I are both white men. We understand 
each other. I can put you up to circumventing this Scythian 
cuss if you will only show an accommodating spirit.” 

“Eeally,” said Sir Dugald, “I am deeply obliged; but 
until her Majesty is pleased to appoint me a colleague I 
have an invincible objection to sharing my duties with 
any one. I cannot sufficiently admire your disinterested 
and public-spirited offer of co-operation, Mr Hicks, but 
this prejudice of mine — foolish and incomprehensible as it 
must no doubt appear to you — prevents my accepting it.” 

“Think of your reputation, General,” urged Mr Hicks, 
sadly. “ I give you my word I had sooner write the story 
of a successful mission than an unsuccessful one any day. 
We newspaper men have a way of finding out things which 
you diplomatic gentlemen never hear of, and I can help you 
through with your work and cover you with glory as well. 
You’Utake it?” 

“ No, thank you,” returned Sir Dugald. “ It is aU pre- 
judice, of course, but somehow I had rather not.” 

“ There are just a few people left in the world who pre- 
fer honour to glory,” cried Georgia her eyes flashing. 

“What an unkind remark. Miss Keeling!” said Sir 
Dugald. “You wiU really wound my feelings if you 
impute motives to me in that reckless way. Well, Mr 
Hicks, I hope we shall see more of you. Lady Haigh is 
always at home on Friday afternoons, and if you care to 
drop in to tiffin any day we shall he delighted to see you.” 

Mr Hicks had not been intending to depart so early, hut 


84 


PEACE WITH HONOUK. 


at this intimation he rose reluctantly and took his leava 
North and Stratford escorted him to the door, and when 
they had returned to the terrace a sense of constraint 
seemed to fall upon those prese;it. Sir Dugald’s impassive 
face told nothing, and his eyes were fixed on a distant 
point of light in the city. He was the only one of the 
party who recognised the full importance of the piece of 
news which had just been announced, hut all perceived 
more or less distinctly that the enterprise on which they 
M^ere bound had received a check. It was Georgia who 
broke the silence at last. 

“ Sir Dugald,” she said, boldly, “ won’t you say some- 
thing? We couldn’t help being here and hearing what 
that man said, and we should like to know what you 
really think, just to hear what we have to expect.” 

“I have never pretended to he a prophet,” said Sir 
Dugald, looking round with a half -smile, “and I fear I 
am not much in the habit of stating publicly what I 
really think. Still, after what has happened to-night, I 
will say that our task is certainly very much complicated 
by what our American friend has told us, though I see no 
reason for wailing over it as impossible. Palace revolutions 
are tolerably frequent in these countries, and Eustam Khan 
may he in favour again to-morrow. Of course the news 
about the Scythian agent is bad, hut we do not hear that 
any treaty has been concluded, and we are now on the 
spot. If the people are reasonably well affected towards 
us, or are even keeping an open mind, the advantages we 
can offer ought to convince them that it is to their interest 
to make friends of us. They appeared friendly enough this 
morning.” 

“ Hicks told us at the door,” said Dick, “ that the King 
and his Amirs were very much divided in opinion, some 
of them advocating the alliance with us, some that with 


AN OFFER OF CO-OPERATION. 


85 


Scythia, and others that the old position of isolation 
should be maintained. The worst of them, he says, is an 
old fellow called the Amir Jahan Beg, who is Eustam 
Khan’s father-in-law. ‘ He is the deadest -headed old 
reactionary I ever saw,’ Hicks said. ‘ All the other 
fellows turn round in the street to look after me and 
show a little interest, but this old cuss rides right on and 
takes no notice. The other day I sent my servant to 
negotiate an interview, and all the answer I got was that 
the door was shut.’ ” 

Eather good, that, for Jahan Beg,” remarked Stratford. 

“ But if he is Eustam Khan’s father-in-law he may per- 
suade him to take sides against us,” said Dr Headlam. 

“We can do nothing until we see how the land lies,” 
said Sir Dugald. “ To-morrow, when the King receives 
us for the first time, we shall get some idea of his attitude 
towards us, and we. can take steps accordingly. There is 
only one thing that I must specially impress upon you, 
gentlemen : he careful when you are in company with 
Hicks. Even after his failure to-night I haven’t a doubt 
that we shall see a good deal of him. I invited him to 
come here now and then because I thought we should be 
acquainted with his movements occasionally, at any rate, 
and he accepted the invitation as likely to give him a 
means of finding out what we are doing. Of course he 
will bribe the servants here and at the Palace to bring 
him news; but he will certainly not neglect us. There- 
fore be careful what you say. I don’t want to misjudge 
the man, but he might not be above the temptation of 
taking steps to secure the fulfilment of his prophecy as 
to the failure of the Mission. In any case he might do 
a great deal of harm by sending home exaggerated or 
distorted reports of what had actually occurred. General 
conversation is the safest — no private talks. I would not 


86 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


answer even for you, Stratford, in the hands of a ‘Crier* 
interviewer, although you are a past -master in the art of 
mystification. Even if you said nothing, that is not neces- 
sarily a barrier to his ci editing you with a long oration. 
There is safety in numbers, for he could not derive much 
political capital from a conversation held in the presence 
of the whole Mission. Our policy is to show a united 
front.” 

“ If only that wretched man had never come to Kuhl)it- 
ul-Haj to spoil everything!” said Lady Haigh, somewhat 
ungratefully, it must be confessed, in view of the infor- 
mation imparted by Mr Hicks. 

“Oh, don’t abuse him,” said Sir Dugald. “It is his 
business.” 


CHAPTEK VIL 

THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED. 

The day following had been appointed by the King for 
the state reception of the Mission, and Sir Dugald and his 
staff left headquarters early for the Palace, each man arrayed 
in the most gorgeous garments in his possession. The 
occasion was a purely formal one, consisting chiefly of the 
presentation of the different members of the Mission to the 
King by name, followed by a little ceremonial conversa- 
tion between his Majesty and Sir Dugald. The King’s 
questions concerned chiefly the personal and family history 
of Queen Victoria, although he was also interested in the 
past services of the Envoy himself. It was not considered 
correct for Sir Dugald to originate any remarks, when once 


THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED. 


87 


the courteous messages with which he had been charged by 
his Government were delivered, and conversation did not 
flow very freely, although, thanks to the necessity for inter- 
preting everything that was said, the time was fairly well 
filled up. The King was obviously ill at ease, asking every 
now and then sudden questions as to the object of the 
Mission, and the intention of the Government in sending 
it, with the evident aim of disconcerting Sir Dugald. But 
the shrewd dark eyes scanned the face of the Envoy in vain 
for any signs of confusion or surprise, and his tranquil and 
unhurried manner seemed gradually to disarm the King’s 
suspicions. Eor Sir Dugald to succeed in maintaining his 
air of careless calm was no slight triumph under the cir- 
cumstances, since he noticed many things which assured 
him of the correctness of the information given by Mr 
Hicks. Eustam Khan was nowhere to be seen; but the 
little Antar Edian, a boy of about eleven, robed in bright 
blue satin and decked with jewels, occupied a seat at his 
father’s side, and was allowed to interpolate remarks of his 
own into the conversation in a way that showed him to bo 
high in favour. Moreover, the King made no allusion to 
the eager request he had sent to England for a lady doctor 
who might examine his wife’s eyes, and it seemed as though 
Georgia’s journey to Kubbet-ul-Haj would be useless, since 
she could not visit the royal harem without an invitation. 
The Amirs who stood round the throne appeared interested 
in all that passed, but their faces expressed no conspicuously 
friendly feeling; while one of their number, whom the staff 
identified at once with the Jahan Beg described by Mr 
Hicks, showed himself ostentatiously inattentive to all that 
went on. Still, when the members of the Mission left the 
Palace and returned to their headquarters to reassure the 
anxious hearts of Lady Haigh and Georgia, they were able 
to suggest some reasons for hopefulness. At any rate, the 


88 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Mission had been graciously received, and that at once, 
and the King seemed to he in a state of suspended judg- 
ment, rather than of settled hostility, while no parade had 
been made of the presence of the Scythian envoy in the city. 

Once more the party at the Mission met on the terrace 
after dinner to discuss coffee and things in general, and 
once again Chanda Lai interrupted the harmony of the 
group. Stratford was in the midst of a description of some 
political crisis which had occurred at Czarigrad during his 
residence there, when the hearer mounted the steps and 
made his way noiselessly to Sir Dugald’s side. 

“ Highness, in the court there is an old man wrapped in 
a mantle, who wishes to see you. He says he is the Amir 
Jahan Beg.” 

Low as were Chanda Lai’s tones, the rest of the party 
heard the words, and a thrill of excitement ran through 
them. Why should this notoriously anti-foreign ruler come 
disguised and under cover of night to see Sir Dugald? 
Surely the situation promised fresh developments ? But Sir 
Dugald was neither flattered nor interested. 

“This is beyond endurance !” he exclaimed, wrathfully. 
“ It was bad enough to be disturbed in the evening by that 
American fellow ; hut for a native it is a little too much ! 
The door is shut, hearer.” 

“I bring a message to the Queen of England’s Envoy 
from Eustam Khan,” said a crisp, penetrating voice in 
Ethiopian; and the startled hearers turned to see an elderly 
man with a grey heard standing on the steps behind them, 
his head and shoulders still shrouded in his cloak. “Let 
the Envoy bid the servant depart and I will do my errand.” 

“ You can go, bearer,” said Sir Dugald. “ By the bye, 
we shall want Mr Kustendjian,” he added, and rose to call 
back Chanda Lai, hut the stranger stepped before him, and 
laid a hand upon his arm. 


THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED. 


89 


“ There is no need of an interpreter,” said Jahan Beg in 
English. “Haigh — Dugald Haigh — have you forgotten 
meV 

“ Good heavens ! ” cried Sir Dugald, stepping back. 
“Can it he possible? You are John Bigg — the man who 
disappeared ? ” 

“ Exactly,” said Jahan Beg. “ The man who disappeared, 
and made a nine days’ wonder for his friends at Tajpur, 
every one of whom had a separate discreditable theory to 
account for his disappearance.” 

“ That was quite unnecessary,” returned Sir Dugald, “ for 
any one who knew you and knew Beatrice Wynn.” 

“As you did? Well — by the bye, what has become of 
Beatrice Wynn?” 

“ Dead, years ago. Typhoid — in Assam somewhere.” 

“ And for years I have been dead in Ethiopia. Young 
men” — he turned suddenly to the staff, who had been 
endeavouring, with indifferent success, to get up an interest 
in conversation among themselves — “let me give you a 
warning. Never throw up everything for a woman’s sake. 
Never spoil your lives because you have been disappointed 
in love. There is not a woman on earth that’s worth it.” 

“ Present company always excepted, of course,” said Fitz, 
with a bow to Lady Haigh and Georgia. Jahan Beg' looked 
at him with a grim smile. 

“No woman will ever spoil your life,” he said, “ though 
I don’t necessarily think the better of you for that. As 
for the rest of you, you are beyond the impressionable age, 
I think. You begin to see that there is something else to 
live for besides love. I was twenty-three when I threw 
aside as good prospects under the Public Works Depart- 
ment as a man need want, and cut myself off from my 
friends and my country, and all for the sake of a woman 
who had never cared a scrap for me. She was only amus- 


90 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


ing herself with me for a while — it’s a way they have. I 
can see now that she painted and dyed, and that she was 
years older than I was — she was a widow — hut I didn’t see 
it then. I thought her as beautiful as an angel, and as 
good — heavens ! how I did believe in that woman — and 
when she married the Commissioner, I chucked everything 
and left.” 

“ Leaving your friends to get your servants brought into 
court on suspicion of having made away with you, and your 
enemies to look for discrepancies in your accounts,” said 
Sir Dugald. 

“It was all a long time ago; but I hope no one was 
hanged,” said Jahan Beg. 

“ Ho ; there was no possible evidence against any of the 
servants, and people began to talk of suicide, and to accuse 
the fair Beatrice under their breath of driving you to 
desperation. In self-defence she let it become known that 
your last letter to her had talked much of going to the dogs 
and of a ruined life, but had contained no threats. Then 
public opinion veered round again to a certain extent ; but 
the Commissioner accepted another post before very long.” 

“ And for that woman’s sake,” said Jahan Beg, fiercely, 
“I have lost everything. It is enough to make a man’s 
blood boil, Haigh. I am an alien and a renegade all the 
rest of my days on account of a woman for whom I have 
not now even a kindly thought.” 

“We have all made fools of ourselves at one time or 
another,” said Sir Dugald, soothingly. “You have paid 
heavily enough for that madness of yours. Bigg, and now 
you can come back with us when we leave this place and 
get into the world again.” 

“ Hot quite. I have given hostages to fortune, you see.” 

“ What ? Oh, you have married a native ? ” 

“ Yes. My wife is the King’s :;ousin. She was a widow 


THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED. 


91 


when I married her, and very rich — for this part of the 
world. She showed a slight disposition to exact a very 
rigid etiquette at first — expected me not to sit down in her 
presence without being invited, and so on, which might 
have led to friction if I had not explained my views clearly 
at once. We have never quarrelled since, and we never 
interfere with one another.” 

“ You have no children % ” asked Lady Haigh. 

I have one daughter. She is married to Eustam Khan.” 

“ An English girl married to a native ? ” cried Georgia. 

She is only half English, at any rate.” 

“ But isn^t Eustam Khan a Mohammedan 1 ” 

“ Of course ; so is she, so is my wife, so am I — in so far 
as I am anything. I told you that I was a renegade, and 
now you know the worst of me.” 

“ But how did you find your way here. Bigg % ” asked Sir 
Dugald, while Georgia was silent in dismay. 

‘‘You know I was always fond of disguising myself and 
going about among the natives. Well, when I left Tajpur 
I made up my mind to wander about for a time as a fakir, 
and at last I got into Khemistan. Things were not so 
settled there then as they are now ; St George Keeling was 
hard at work pacifying the country. I fell among thieves — 
that is, among the hillmen — who would not believe me when 
I said I was an Englishman, hut were afraid to kill me lest 
it should turn out to he true after aU. They compromised 
matters by making me a slave, and gave me a wretched 
time of it. At last the Ethiopians made a raid upon their 
villages, and I was so glad to see the tables turned that I 
joined the invaders, and helped them to get possession of 
the various strongholds. The hillmen were wiped out, and 
when the fighting was over the Ethiopians thought of me. 
They never imagined I was an Englishman, and I didn’t 
teU them. Well — I may as well make a clean breast of it 


92 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


— they offered me lands, and so on, and a command in 
their army if I would turn Mohammedan, thinking that I 
was an idolater, like the hillmen, and I had had time to 
recover a little from the knockdown blow Beatrice gave me, 
and life seemed worth living again, and I consented. It’s 
a sordid affair enough, you see — ^just a bartering of one’s 
conscience against life and wealth — and it was not worth it. 
I have tried it, and I have come to the conclusion that 
one’s wretched life is a poor exchange for country and 
religion. Another warning for you, young men.” 

“ Then you rose to power after all ? ” said Sir Dugald. 

“ I did. It doesn’t sound a moral arrangement — to any 
one who only looks on the surface. My lands lie near the 
frontier of the Scythian sphere of influence, and before my 
day they were always liable to incursions from the tribes 
under Scythian protection. I put a stop to that, and my 
fame spread. One Ethiopian chief after another made alli- 
ance with me, until I was at the head of a confederation 
extending all along that frontier. Then it was that the 
King acknowledged my power. Old Fath-ud-Din, who had 
taken a dislike to me from the very first, pointed out to him 
that the position I had built up for myself was a menace 
to the throne. Consequently his advice was that I should 
be summoned to Court and quietly put out of the way. 
Fortunately for me, however, the King took some one else’s 
advice that time. He knew that I was the only man that 
could hold that frontier, and he preferred to consolidate my 
power and attach my interests to his own by offering me 
his cousin’s hand. I knew better than to refuse, and from 
that time I became generally known as the Amir Jahan Beg, 
one of the pillars of the state. At least I can say that I 
have done my best for my district. The people are better 
governed there than anywhere else in the kingdom, and the 
chiefs under me have taken to copying some of my waysL 


THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED. 


93 


That is something, but I can’t pretend that the game is 
worth the candle. I used to feel it more than I do now, 
especially when my daughter was a child. There was so 
much that was English about her that it nearly broke my 
heart to think of her growing up and leading the life of an 
Ethiopian woman. I used to plan to take her with me 
and make a dash for liberty through Scythian territory, but 
it seemed mean to go away and leave my wife, and I shouldn’t 
have known what to do with her if I had got her to come 
too. Then Eustam Khan, who was a delicate boy, and pined 
in the city, came to live with us, and I grew as fond of him 
as if he had been my own son. He is the only person here 
who knows that I am an Englishman, but I have taught 
him a little English, and we talk it together sometimes. 
When he grew up, he wished to marry my daughter, and 
though I knew it would make Eath-ud-Din and all his crew 
my open enemies, instead of merely my ill-wishers, I could 
not refuse him, for he promised to take no other wife if I 
would give her to him.” 

“ Then is that the origin of the rivalry between Eustam 
Khan and Eath-ud-Din ? ” asked Sir Dugald. 

“ Ko, it has merely aggravated it. Eustam Khan is the 
son of the King’s first wife, but Antar Khan’s mother, the 
Vizier’s sister, has royal blood in her veins through her 
mother, and no one can decide which of the two sons has 
the best right to succeed. Consequently the King gives 
them each a turn of favour, and plays them off one against 
the other, to prevent either of them from forming a party. 
Just now, Antar Khan, which of course means Eath-ud-Din, 
is uppermost.” 

“ And that bears seriously on our position here 1 ” 

It does ; for Eustam Khan is the strongest advocate of 
the English alliance, while Eath-ud-Din, out of pure con- 
<t.rariness, has fanned the hopes of the Scythians. There is 


94 


PEACE WITH HONOUE. 


a wretched Jew fellow, supposed to have been intrusted by 
the Scythian and Neustrian Governments with a secret mis- 
sion, in the town now, but he is kept in the background 
until the King has made up his mind about you. What- 
ever Fath-ud-Din can do against you he will, you may depend 
upon that, and he is all-powerful just now. Eustam Khan 
finds it advisable to remain at home and pretend to he ill. 
He would have come to see you before this if he had only 
had himself to please, hut he knows that his visit would be 
at once represented as part of a plot to dethrone his father 
and place himself on the throne. Even I have to be careful. 
Katurally I have spoken in favour of the English alliance, 
and joined with Eustam Khan in doing all I could to further 
it, but Eath-ud-Din has begun to smell a rat. He can’t 
dream that I am an Englishman, but I believe he thinks I 
have been in British territory and brought dangerous ideas 
into Ethiopia with me, and he would ruin me if he could. 
That is why I am hound, while supporting the object of your 
Mission here, to appear indifferent or even hostile to your- 
selves personally, and why I dare not he seen coming to 
your house. There is a horrible Yankee journalist about the 
place — have you come across him yet ? — who tried to draw 
me, hut I put on the very haughtiest oriental airs, and sent 
him away with a flea in his ear. I dare say he means me 
no harm personally, hut I know he is very thick with Eath- 
ud-Din, and that is enough for me. He has not got much 
change out of Jahan Beg.” 

“Mr Hicks has already presented himself here,” said 
Sir Dugald. “ What with him, and Eath-ud-Din, and the 
Keustro-Scythian agent, and your precarious position in the 
country. Bigg, it would appear to a Western mind that our 
prospects of success were rather cloudy.” 

“ I will do what I can to help you,” returned Jahan Beg; 
“secretly, of course. In public you must expect to find 


THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED. 


95 


me slightly troublesome in weighing your proposals, and 
rigid in exacting the full pound of flesh and an ounce or two 
extra ; but such hints as I can give you privately I will 
Don’t tell me what your instructions are ; I don’t want to 
know them. I only say, don’t insist on the reception of a 
permanent British resident with an escort at Kubhet-ul-Haj, 
for you won’t get it, and you will be playing into the hands 
of Scythia. The Jew agent has assured the King already 
that you are sure to make that demand, and that such an 
arrangement would be the first step towards annexing the 
kingdom. If you must be represented here, stand out for 
a Consul-General at Iskandarbagh, the big town you passed 
just after crossing the frontier, with a native Vahil at the 
capital. Then don’t demand any territory. The Scythians 
have damaged their case already by hinting at a rectification 
of frontier. A reciprocal commercial treaty you are empow- 
ered to conclude, I suppose ; but you must agree that no 
foreigner shall enter Ethiopia without the King’s passport. 
There will be difficulties, too, about the legal status of 
foreigners ” 

“Excuse me. Bigg, but would you not prefer to discuss 
these things with me in the office 1 They are a little tech- 
nical to form an evening entertainment for the ladies. Mr 
Stratford, perhaps you will kindly accompany us % ” 

“The ladies must excuse me, remembering that it is a 
long-desired relief to talk English once more to any one 
who can understand it properly. You have not presented 
me to your wife, Haigh.” 

Sir Dugald performed the ceremony briefly, and then 
introduced the guest to Georgia, explaining that she was St 
George Keeling’s daughter. 

“And you are the lady doctor V’ said Jahan Beg. “I 
have one thing to ask of you, Miss Keeling. It is possible 
that at the Palace you may see my daughter, K’lr Jahan, 


96 


PEACE WITH HONOUPt. 


Eustam Khan^s wife. Have pity upon her, and don’t make 
her discontented with her life. She must stay here all her 
days, and she is happy with her husband and her baby. 
You need not describe to her English life and the Christian 
position of women, and all those other luxuries of civilisa- 
tion of which you are the culminating product, need youl 
It could do no possible good, and it certainly would do a 
great deal of harm, for things of that kind are absolutely 
unattainable here.” 

“ I will try not to put new ideas into her head, if they 
would only make her unhappy,” said Georgia, rather doubt- 
fully ; “ but surely you have told her about England 1 ” 

“ I have told her nothing. ‘ Where ignorance is bliss ’ — 
you know the rest. Although I have married her to a 
Mohammedan — and roused your indignation by doing so 
— I did what I could to keep her happy as his wife. 
She does not know that I am an Englishman, and I have 
never even taught her English ; although for years I used 
to hold long conversations with myself or with imaginary 
friends when I was alone, that I might not forget my own 
language.” 

And Jahan Beg went on his way, leaving Georgia op- 
pressed with a sense — which was by no means new to her, 
but had never made itself felt so clearly as to-night — of 
the complexity of life. She sat looking out over the Mos- 
lem city, and pondering the various problems which the 
Amir’s words had started in her mind, while Lady Haigh 
and Eitz settled down to a game of halma, and North 
carried off Dr Headlam to show him a new kind of locust, 
which one of the servants had caught and brought to him. 
The doctor welcomed the discovery with rapture, and con- 
veyed the insect in triumph to his own quarters, while 
Dick returned to the terrace. Georgia turned to him im- 
pulsively as he mounted the steps close beside her. 


THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED. 


97 


“ What is your opinion of compromises ? Can they ever 
be morally justifiable 

Kow it was more than a month since Dick and Georgia 
had exchanged any conversation but the merest common- 
places, and Dick was so well satisfied with this state of 
affairs as to vow to himself every day that he would take 
care their acquaintance remained on this somewhat re- 
stricted footing for the future. Yet although he felt 
that Georgia had not intentionally appealed to him in 
preference h. any one else, and would have attacked Sir 
Dugald or Stratford on the subject, if either of them had 
appeared at the moment, as readily as himself, he sat down 
near her, and hastily collected his views on the question of 
compromise. 

It rather depends upon the nature of the compromises, 
ioesn’t it?” he asked — “ whether they refer to essentials or 
non-essentials, I mean. For instance, one’s whole existence 
is a series of compromises.” 

“ In the sense in which all social life is a compromise 
between the demands of the individual and those of the 
race ? ” said Georgia. “ Yes, but those refer to non- 
essentials, of course.” 

“ iN’on-essentials to the race now ; but I dare say they 
seemed essential enough to the individual at one time. 
For instance, in the district in India in which I served 
first, the natives thought it essential to offer human 
sacrifices every year. Their crops depended upon it, they 
said. But we have taught them otherwise, and now they 
compromise matters by sacrificing goats.” 

“ But that was not really an essential matter ; it was 
only that they thought it so. What I want to know is, 
how can one tell, in questions of right and wrong, where 
conciliation ends and compromise begins ? ” 

“ That is the ofifice of all great leaders and statesmen, I 
G 


98 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


suppose ; to point out a path which shall conciliate as 
many people, and compromise as few principles, as possible. 
On the whole, the world is on the side of compromise, I 
think — when it is called conciliation. The people who 
object to both the name and the reality generally become 
martyrs.” 

“ Martyrs ! ” said Georgia, slowly, “ It is easy enough to 
say the word ; but think what it means ! ” 

“ Ah ! I see that it is our friend Jahan Beg’s story which 
has awakened your sudden interest in compromises.” 

“ NTot exactly his story, but what he said to me. It 
made me wonder whether I had done right in coming here. 
Perhaps you don’t know that when I agreed to come it was 
expressly stipulated that I was to make no attempt to 
introduce Christianity into the King’s household?” 

“ That seems a very obvious and necessary precaution,” 
said Dick, delighted to find Georgia talking to him so 
frankly. “ You could do no good, as Jahan Beg said ; but 
you might do a great deal of harm, both to the poor 
women and to the Mission.” 

“But it almost seems to me that I was wrong in 
reasoning in that way. It is like hiding one’s colours — 
nearly as bad as doing evil that good may come.” 

“ Kot doing evil, surely. Miss Keeling ? As a medical 
missionary, half your work is concerned with the bodies of 
your patients. You can do that half still, and you are not 
forbidden to answer questions if the ladies ask them.” 

“ But I know they won’t ask me questions of that kind. 
M}'- Khemistan experiences have shown me that they will 
only talk about the merest trivialities, or else ask me for 
poisons.” 

“Then it can’t be your fault. At any rate, you will 
make friends with the ladies, and perhaps the memory of 
your visit may prepare the way for a regular missionary 


THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED. 


99 


when the country is opened up later, on,” suggested Dick, 
the fluency of his reasoning astonishing himself. 

I am afraid I looked upon Kuhbet-ul-Haj too much as 
a stepping-stone to Khemistan. I thought perhaps the 
Government might allow me to settle on the frontier and 
practise there if I accomplished this business successfully.” 

“Well, do you know, I think that was rather a good 
idea. Miss Keeling. You might even itinerate into Ethiopia 
if the King was well-disposed towards you, and there could 
he no mistake as to your status then. But you are not 
thinking of refusing to treat the poor Queen now that you 
are here, and leaving her to go on suffering until a lady 
doctor with a more elastic conscience can be sent out ? ” 

“ Ko, of course not ; it would be cruel as well as absurd. 
Besides, it would be breaking my word. But don’t you 
ever feel puzzled about your duty, Major Korth, or afraid 
that in some particular case you may have acted wrongly 1 ” 
“ I don’t think so,” returned Dick, meditatively. “ Kot 
that I am a very good judge, for things have always been 
pretty clear for me. I have been under orders a good deal, 
you know, and then my only business was to obey, ani 
when you are thrown on your own responsibility, you only 
try to do your duty, and act on the square. You know 
your father’s motto, Miss Keeling*? Two or three of his 
Khemistan men have told me that he gave it to them when 
they began to work under him. This was the way it 
usually went: ‘You are here for the honour of your 
coxmtry and the good of the natives,’ he would say 
when they joined. ‘ Kever desert a friend, never disown an 
agent, never deceive an enemy. You will go on duty to- 
morrow, and may God bless you.’ I wish I had known 
him. It is a distinction to have served under such a 
man.” 

' Highness,” said a voice at Dick’s elbow, before Georgia 

LofC. 


100 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


could answer, and they both turned to see Chanda Lai, who 
had mounted the steps noiselessly with his hare feet, stand- 
ing beside them, “ there is another old man in the court, 
wrapped up in a mantle, and he says he is the Grand Vizier, 
Fath-ud-Din. He asks to see the lurra sahib, and he will 
not be turned away.” 

“ Good gracious ! ” cried Dick. “We shall have all 
Kubhet-ul-Haj here before long. It only wants the King 
and Eustam Khan to make things lively. But if Fath- 
ud-Din meets Jahan Beg, there’ll be murder done. Miss 
Keeling, while I go and parley with this old wretch, do you 
mind warning the Chief to get rid of Jahan Beg? I 
shouldn’t wonder if we have to let him down through a 
window into the street behind, for it won’t do for him to 
pass through the courtyard.” 

He ran down the steps, and Georgia hurried to Sir 
Dugald’s private office, where she found him in earnest 
confabulation with Jahan Beg. The state of affairs was 
quickly explained, and Stratford hastened the visitor away 
to the back of the house. Here, when the new-comer was 
safely closeted with Sir Dugald, Dick joined him, and 
together they succeeded in letting Jahan Beg down into the 
lane, where he alighted softly on a convenient rubbish-heap, 
and whence he made the best of his way home. 

It was not until the rest of the party were thinking of 
going to bed that Sir Dugald was able to get rid of his 
visitor and return to the terrace. He smiled grimly as he 
glanced at the expectant faces which awaited him. 

“The worthy Fath-ud-Din has prepared a very pretty 
little plot,” he said, “ which is meant to remove both Jahan 
Beg and Eustam Khan from his path, and we are expected 
to help.” 

“We shall get into trouble,” remarked Lady Haigh, 
oracularly, “ if all the conspirators in Kubbet-ul-Haj make 


THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED. 


101 


this house a rendezvous when they want to plot against one 
another.” 

“We shall,” agreed Sir Dugald ; “ and it is a mystery to 
me what these good people see in our faces that leads 
them to think we shall be willing to forward their schemes. 
I suppose it is only natural that Bigg should wish to utilise 
us as a means of getting his son-in-law acknowledged as 
heir to the throne ; but I did not expect Fath-ud-Din. It 
seems that he has for a long time suspected Jahan Beg of 
being an Englishman, and the suspicion became a certainty 
yesterday, owing to his ostentatious lack of interest in our 
entry. Jahan Beg thought that his bearing showed how 
patriotic an Ethiopian he had become; but Fath-ud-Din 
argued that such disregard of such a show could only be 
due to his having often seen similar sights before.” 

“ I hope you taxed Fath-ud-Din with being an English- 
man on the same grounds,” said Lady Haigh. 

“ Certainly not,” replied Sir Dugald. “ You forget that 
he was ill. His illness may have been diplomatic and 
momentary; but it has to be accepted as a fact. Well, 
Hicks supplied the next link in the chain. It seems that 
Fath-ud-Din granted him the interview which Jahan Beg 
refused, and in the course of conversation asked him 
casually what he would think if he heard that a solitary 
Englishman had lived in Ethiopia disguised for years. 
Hicks replied, as most men would naturally do, that he 
should conclude he had done something which had made 
British territory too hot to hold him, and had run away from 
fear of the law. That struck Fath-ud-Din as a bright idea, 
and he came to tell me of his suspicions, and to suggest 
that I should invite the King to give up J ahan Beg as an 
escaped criminal. He assured me that he and his party 
would give me all possible support, which I could well 
^'elieve ; and he let out that he anticipated that Eustam 


102 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Khan would be involved in his father-in-la Vs downfall. 
That would leave the way clear for Antar Khan, to whom 
Fath-ud-Din hopes to marry his daughter. A suitable 
bakhshish was also understood, and in return for these 
various boons, Fath-ud-Din would be good enough to 
further the objects of the Mission, and guarantee its 
success.” 

“And I hope you kicked him down the steps 1” said 
Lady Haigh. 

“K'o, Elma; I did not. I should have thought you 
knew by this time that my disposition was eminently a 
peaceful one. I merely told Fath-ud-Din that I knew of 
no criminal answering to the description of Jahan Beg, but 
that if he could find out what he had done, and it was 
sufiiciently heinous, I would apply for his extradition with 
pleasure. With that he had to be content, which leaves us 
a breathing-space.” 

“ I suppose you wiU be able to get the treaty concluded 
while he is hunting about for proofs of Jahan Beg’s guilt ? ” 
said Georgia. 

“ That is what we must hope to do. I was most careful 
to make everything hinge on his own efforts. It was 
necessary to avoid like poison anything that might sound 
like offering him help in his quest, or he would have under- 
stood it as a definite pledge to assist him by fair means or 
foul to ruin Jahan Beg.” 


EAST MEETS WEST. 


103 


CHAPTEE VIIL 

BAST MEETS WEST. 

In spite of the very moderate encouragement he had 
received, hope must have told a flattering tale to the Vizier 
Fath-ud-Din when he left the Eesidency after his interview 
with Sir Dugald, for it became evident very soon that the 
hindrances which had threatened to obstruct the path of 
the Mission had suddenly been removed. Eustam Khan 
was restored to a measure of his father’s favour and allowed 
to appear at Court, besides being permitted to speak in the 
council on behalf of the English alliance, while the Keustro- 
Scythian agent found his promises received with uncon- 
cealed incredulity, and was tantalised with evasive answers 
to his demands. Of these changes the party at the Mission 
were kept informed both by Jahan Beg and by the Vizier 
himself, the latter losing no opportunity of insisting on the 
virulence with which his rival was opposing the English 
proposals, and the eagerness with which he advised the 
extortion of every possible concession. If it had not been 
for the explanation given behind the scenes by Jahan Beg 
himself, it would have been difficult for Sir Dugald to resist 
the conclusion, towards which Fath-ud-Din laboured com 
tinually to urge him, that the Amir’s hatred of his native 
country was deep-rooted and had a sinister origin ; but the 
Vizier’s object was so apparent that it was fairly easy to 
distinguish the embroidery which he added to the speeches 
he professed to report. Jahan Beg’s opposition was all on 
points of detail, not of principle ; and although he would 
haggle for hours over the rate of an import duty, or the 
terms on which an imaginary passport was to be granted, 


104 


PEACE WITH HONOUK. 


Sir Dugald forga 'e him the worry he caused in considera- 
tion of his services in bringing his colleagues and the King 
to look at matters from a business point of view. It was 
the Ethiopian idea that the King was the greatest monarch 
on earth, and that he could settle any trouble that might 
arise by the simple expedient of ordering the heads of the 
disturbers of the peace to be brought him, and it was diffi- 
cult at first to wean the people, and especially the Amirs 
who formed the royal council, from this mediaeval way of 
looking at things. In spite of Jahan Beg’s invaluable help 
in this respect, however. Sir Dugald did his best more than 
once to induce him to abandon his simulated policy of 
obstruction and support the Mission heartily, reminding 
him that he could not now deceive Eath-ud-Din, whc knew 
him to be an Englishman. But Jahan Beg remained ob- 
durate, declaring that if his proceedings did not blind Eath- 
ud-Din, at least they continued to deceive the rest of the 
Amirs, who would at once suspect him of having been 
bribed by the English should he appear to be suddenly 
converted to a warm interest in the treaty; while the Yizier 
himself, having already concealed for some time the fact 
which had come to his knowledge, was bound still to keep 
it secret, lest he should be punished for not revealing it 
before. 

In consequence of Jahan Beg’s educational work, and 
Eath-ud-Din’s unexpected complaisance. Sir Dugald and 
the staff betook themselves day after day to the Palace, 
and were conducted at once to the King’s hall of audience. 
Here seats of rather an uncomfortable and nondescript 
character were arranged for them, for the camp-chairs they 
had brought with them were the only chairs in Kubbet-ul- 
Haj, or possibly in all Ethiopia, and a laboured conversation 
took place. When the King had satisfied a portion of his 
curiosity respecting men and things in England and Khem- 


EAST MEETS WEST. 


105 


istan, Sir Dugald would contrive to lead the talk round to 
the more important matters in hand, and in this way the 
various clauses of the proposed treaty were discussed in 
turn, notes of the proceedings being taken in Ethiopian by 
the King’s scribe and the interpreter Kustendjian, and in 
English by Eitz Anstruther. When the Englishmen had 
taken their departure, the points touched upon would be 
discussed afresh by the King and the Amirs, and if no 
satisfactory conclusion had been reached, they reappeared 
the next morning with great regularity, while if all was 
well, the discussion moved on to a fresh stage. 

In this way time passed not impleasantly, varied with a 
certain amount of incident, so far as regarded Sir Dugald 
and his staff ; but for the ladies it was at first very different 
True, they had their own terrace, where they could go about 
unveiled, and their own courtyard in which to take exercise. 
When Georgia was in a cheerful frame of mind she called 
this court her quarter-deck ; when she was feeling depressed 
she alluded to it as her prison-yard, — and here she paced 
along during the cooler hours of each day until Sir Dugald 
told her that her feet would wear a path in the stones. 
Sometimes, when public business prevented the King from 
receiving the Mission, its members would escort the ladies 
for a ride, but it was necessary to choose secluded tracks 
for these excursions, since public opinion in Kubbet-ul-Haj 
did not permit women to ride with men, unless simply for 
protection on a journey. 

But when the Mission had spent about a month in 
the city, there came a change for Georgia. By way 
of propitiating Sir Dugald, who was beginning to wax 
exceedingly wrathful over the King’s ostentatious forget- 
fulness of the urgent request he had made for a lady 
doctor, Eath-ud-Din ventured to remind his august master 
of Miss Keeling’s existence, and her presence at his desire 


106 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


in Kubbet-ul-Haj. The King happened to be in a good 
temper at the moment, or perhaps his conscience had been 
pricking him for his neglect of Eustam Khan’s unfortunate 
mother, and the result of the reminder was the arrival 
at the Mission one morning of a covered litter carried 
by four men, and accompanied by an escort of cavalry, 
at the head of which rode a gorgeous negro, who brought 
the intimation that the doctor lady was requested to wait 
on the Queen. 

That was only the first of many days on which Georgia 
ensconced herself in the litter with her maid Kahah, and 
with the curtains closely drawn was borne off to the Palace. 
A very short preliminary examination convinced her that 
the Queen was suffering from cataract in both eyes, and 
that an operation was absolutely necessary. But the 
matter did not appear by any means of so simple a 
character to the dwellers in the harem. Even when, with 
the aid of the Khemistani girl, Georgia had succeeded in 
getting things explained, in highly colloquial Ethiopian, 
to the Queen and her attendants, she found that they 
all shrank with horror from the idea of the operation. It 
was not merely that they distrusted herself, as an alien 
both in race and religion, but they were strongly of the 
opinion that whereas the use of any amount of medicine, 
the nastier the better, was lawful in cases of disease, the 
employment of the knife to give relief was a blasphemous 
interference with the designs of Providence. In vain 
Georgia told of the wonderful instances of recovery, 
following on operations such as she intended to perform, 
which had come within her own experience ; it was 
Eahah who at last placed the question before the Queen 
in a way that appealed to her. Whatever happened was 
incontrovertibly due to the decrees of fate : if it was fated 
that the Queen should be blind, blind she would continue 


EAST MEETS WEST. 


107 


to be ; but if the operation proved successful, it would 
be clear evidence that she was not fated to be blind. 
Influenced by Rahah’s logic, the Queen consented, with 
great reluctance, to allow the matter to be referred to her 
husband; and the next day Georgia, with Eahah as 
interpreter, held a colloquy on the subject with the King, 
through a grating which effectually precluded either party 
from gaining a glimpse of the other. The King was not 
so easily moved by Eahah’s eloquence as his wife had been, 
but eventually a compromise was agreed upon. It was 
evident to Georgia that, owing both to fright and to the 
sorrows of the past few months, the Queen was in no 
state for the operation to be performed at present. Some 
delay was therefore inevitable, and the King was at last 
brought to consent to the trial of the plan, if a week or 
two of careful diet and nursing, together with cheerful 
society and the blessing of hopefulness, should prove to 
have a beneflcial effect on the patient’s general health. 

It seemed to Georgia that, in view of the state of things 
in the Palace, each portion of the prescription was more 
unattainable than the rest ; but after two or three days of 
vain endeavours to instruct the shiftless harem servants 
in the arts of nursing and of invalid cookery, and to restore 
tone to the mind of the poor Queen, weakened and 
saddened as it was by years of sorrow, she found a new 
ally at her side. Coming into the Queen’s room one day, 
she saw seated on the divan a taU girl with a fresh English 
face, blue-eyed and fair-haired, holding a closely-swathed 
baby in her arms. Although the stranger wore the 
Ethiopian dress, Georgia would have greeted her at once 
as a fellow-countrywoman, if she had not turned and stared 
at her with undisguised interest and pleasure, saying some- 
thing in Ethiopian to the Queen. Then a great pang of 
pity seized Georgia’s heart, for she knew that the English 


108 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


girl before her must be Nur Jahan, Jahan Beg’s daughter 
and Rustam Khan’s wife. 

Remembering her promise to Kur Jahan’s father, how- 
ever, Georgia composed her face and took her usual seat 
beside her patient. The Queen was so much more cheerful 
this morning, that it was evident she enjoyed the presence 
of her daughter-in-law and grandson ; and after a while, to 
Georgia’s delight, she brightened visibly at Kur Jahan’s 
suggestion that, when the operation had been successfully 
performed, she would be able to see the baby. When the 
medical examination was over, the young wife felt herself 
at liberty to talk, and Georgia learnt that, although she 
had now come for a few days to the Palace solely for the 
purpose of cheeriug her mother-in-law, she had not quitted 
it very long. When Rustam Khan fell into disfavour, he 
had put his wife and her week-old baby under his mother’s 
protection at once, fearing that neither his house nor that of 
Jahan Beg would be safe from the rabble of the city, who 
were warm partisans of Fath-ud-Din. With high glee, Kur 
Jahan narrated how her husband had come to visit her 
in secret, always at hours when the King was not likely 
to enter the harem, disguised sometimes as a woman and 
sometimes as a negro, in order to escape the Yizier’s spies ; 
and how once he had actually met his father outside the 
Queen’s door, but stepping aside respectfully, had passed 
him without being recognised under the thick veil. To 
Georgia, the possibility of such adventures within the sacred 
walls of the harem was a new thing, and she enjoyed the 
gusto with which Kur Jahan related them. But the Queen 
thought differently, and began to moan feebly, as she pulled 
at the edge of the coverlet. 

“Thou art always thus, Kur Jahan,” she said, queru- 
lously ; “ laughing and rejoicing when thy lord is in peril 
ot his life. An Ethiopian woman, seeing her husband in 


EAST MEETS WEST. 


109 


such straits, would have shed an ocean of tears, and refused 
to be comforted until times had changed ; but I have seen 
thee, when Rustam Khan had but just gone from thee, 
planning eagerly how he should enter the Palace on the 
next occasion, without letting fall a tear.” 

“ But it was that which pleased my lord, 0 my mother,” 
said Kur Jahan, eager to defend herself. “What delight 
had there been in our meetings, if I had only sat at his feet 
and bedewed them with tears ? There was so much to tell, 
and so much to hear ; how could I weep when my lord was 
with me 1 And when he was gone, was it not happier for 
me to consider how I might see him again, rather than weep 
because he could not be with me still ? ” 

“ Go thy ways, Kur Jahan,” said the elder woman, 
bitterly. “Thou too wilt one day learn that although 
the life of all women is sad, that of a woman who is 
also a king’s wife is saddest of all. How canst thou love 
thy lord as I, his mother, love him? Thine eyes are as 
bright as when he married thee, while mine are blind 
with weeping for him. But he loves the bright eyes better 
than the blind ones, and is it to be wondered at ? ” and the 
Queen rocked herself to and fro, and wailed hopelessly. 

“ 0 my mother, wilt thou break my heart ? ” sobbed Hur 
Jahan, throwing herself down beside her. “Can we not 
both love my lord ? I know well that thy love for him has 
lasted longer, but must it needs be greater than mine ? My 
lord’s love is my life, and yet thou wilt not believe it because 
I do not always weep when I am sad. 0 doctor lady, dost 
thou not believe that I love my lord ? ” 

“ What does the doctor lady know of it ? ” demanded the 
Queen. “But thou art my son’s beloved, Kur Jahan, and 
for that I love thee also. But I would thou wert as we are. 
Thou art of the idolaters through thy father, and thou dost 
not grow like us. But thy life is like ours, and, as years 


no 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


pass on, it will be more and more like mine, and if thou 
dost not weep then, what wilt thou do? Those who do 
not weep go mad.” 

It was evident to Georgia that Kur Jahan was comfort- 
ing herself with the thought that her husband was very 
unlike his father, while the Queen expected that in course 
of time he would exactly resemble him ; but she saw that 
the excitement was bad for her patient, and interposed 
prosaically, with a suggestion as to the preparation of 
beef- tea, which ^^ur Jahan took up at once, displaying 
practical powers which encouraged Georgia to give her a 
first lesson in home nursing. But in spite of this cheering 
fact, Georgia’s heart still ached as she was carried back to 
the Mission in her litter, for she could not forget the con- 
trast between the girlish form of iN’ur Jahan and the bowed 
and broken figure of the old Queen, who seemed so sure that 
her daughter-in-law’s life must one day come to resemble 
her own. But there was a trait in iN'ur Jahan’s character 
which had no part in that of the Queen, and which would 
go far to render her lot even harder — the adventurous spirit 
which her mother-in-law so bitterly resented, and which had 
caused her to find a certain enjoyment in the shifts and 
devices to which her husband had been obliged to have 
recourse in order to see her. 

“Jahan Beg ought to have escaped from the country 
and brought her to England, as he thought of doing,” 
was Georgia’s mental comment. “It is his spirit she 
inherits, and it is cruel of him to rest satisfied with the 
life to which he has condemned her. She is ready to 
welcome any excitement, even of a disagreeable kind, as 
a relief to the monotony of her existence. I can see 
that she is pining for outside interests, though she doesn’t 
know it. In a man of English blood this would seem quite 
natural and proper to every one, and why should it be dif- 


EAST MEETS WEST. 


Ill 


ferent for a woman ? And what a life it is to which she 
has to look forward ! Even if Eustam Khan keeps his 
promise and marries no other wife, she can only spend 
her days in doing nothing. Nothing to do for husband 
or children, in the house or outside, and to be surrounded 
by a number of other women as idle as herself ! ‘ Better 

fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.’ I had rather 
have my thirty -two years of life than the poor Queen’s 
fifty, queen and wife and mother though she is. Her 
only advantage in being Queen is that she must not do 
the little pieces of work which would have fallen to her 
in another position. As a wife she has to share her hus- 
band with an indefinite number of other women, and as 
a mother she sees her sons treated like Eustam Khan, and 
her daughters condemned to the same kind of life as herself. 
Perhaps Nur Jahan’s children may inherit enough of her 
character to enable them to break the spell; but I am 
afraid the change won’t come in her time. The East 
moves so slowly.” 

Since Georgia’s thoughts had been so deeply stirred on 
this subject, it was not wonderful that she communicated 
her views to Dick when they happened to be talking on 
the terrace that evening. She felt it a necessity to share 
her reflections with some one, and to her surprise he received 
them with unwonted meekness. 

“Kipling doesn’t agree with you,” was all he said in 
answer to her estimate of the probable happiness of the 
Eastern as compared with that of the Western woman. 

“Kipling!” said Georgia, in high scorn. 

“ I thought you admired him 1 ” 

“ So I do. I think he is an excellent authority on men 
— at least, the men seem to find it so — but what can he, or 
any man, know about women ? At best they can only see 
results and guess at causes. They observe very carefully 


112 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


all that they can see, and give us the result of their obser- 
vations in knowing little remarks, half cynical and half 
patronising, and think they have gauged a woman’s nature 
to its very depths. Then she does something that throws 
all their calculations wrong, and they say that she is shallow 
and fickle, and, above all, unwomanly; whereas it is only 
that either their observations or their deductions were in- 
correct.” 

“ Still,” said Dick, “ I am inclined to agree with a very 
comforting doctrine I heard you enunciating to Stratford 
the other night. You were speaking of the principle of 
balance, and you said that when one side of the truth had 
been exclusively insisted upon for a time the pendulum 
swung back and the other side became prominent until it 
was the first one’s turn again. I thought it was a very 
good idea — for the people who can keep just in the middle. 
Those who rush to either extreme must find themselves 
rather left when the pendulum swings.” 

“But what has that to do with our present subject?” 
asked Georgia. 

“ It seems to me to apply. You see, the New — I beg 
your pardon; I know you dislike the term — the modern 
female has had rather a long innings lately. You have 
often said that you don’t agree with all her developments, 
which seems pretty clear proof that she has at any rate 
approached the extreme point. Well, Kipling comes to 
show us the other side of the matter, exaggerated, perhaps ; 
but that is unavoidable, owing to the exaggerations on the 
lady’s part. At least, that is how it strikes me.” 

“North, where are you?” said Stratford, appearing 
suddenly on the terrace. “ The Chief wants you for some- 
thing.” 

Dick rose and disappeared, with an apology to Georgia, 
who leaned back in her chair and smiled. 


EAST MEETS WEST: 


113 


“He is improving wonderfully,” she said to herself. 
“ Two months ago he would never have talked as he has 
to-night. Crushing assertions without any proof used to he 
his idea of arguments. He must have taken a lesson from 
Mr Stratford. Was he really listening all the time I was 
talking to him the other night 1 He has certainly changed 
very much, and I am very glad of it. It would have been 
most unpleasant if the only man who could not bring him- 
self to he civil to me was such an old friend, and Mah’s 
brother.” 

If Mabel could have heard this soliloquy, it is probable 
that she would have smiled darkly to herself, and remarked 
that her dear Georgie must have been considerably piqued 
by Dick’s cavalier behaviour for her to make such a point 
of having overcome his opposition to herself. However, 
there was no one at hand to point out to Georgia that she 
felt more satisfaction in one amicable conversation with her 
former lover than in all the attentions of Stratford and the 
doctor, who entertained no prejudice against medical women, 
and always appreciated the honour of a talk with her. It 
may be that it was merely the feeling that she had been 
victorious in disarming Dick’s hostility which gave such a 
zest to her intercourse with him ; but if this was so, an 
incident which occurred a few days later ought to have cast 
some additional light upon the subject. 

Matters had been going very smoothly at the Palace of 
late, and Sir Dugald had the satisfaction of knowing that all 
the clauses of the projected treaty had been in substance 
agreed to. It now only remained to draw it up in formal 
shape, and to ratify it by the signatures, or rather seals, of 
the contracting parties. While the draughtsmen on both 
sides were busy reducing the notes taken during Sir 
Dugald’s audiences of the King into suitably involved 
phraseology, the members of the Mission enjoyed a short 

H 


114 


PEACE WITH HONOUK. 


holiday. They made several expeditions into the districts 
lying around the city, and one day the King invited the 
gentlemen of the party to visit a summer-palace which he 
had erected on a spur of the hills some fifteen miles away. 
Mr Hicks, who had remained doggedly at his post in spite 
of the rebuff he had received, and contrived to glean sufiB- 
cient news from his talks with Fath-ud-Din and the gossip of 
the Mission servants to fill the requisite number of columns 
per week for his paper when supplemented by his own 
lively imagination, was to be of the party, and the younger 
men anticipated some amusement in baffling his insatiable 
curiosity. They rode off in high spirits, the outward expres- 
sion of which was modified in deference to Sir Dugald, to 
whom the excursion appeared in a light which was anything 
but pleasurable; and Lady Haigh and Georgia resigned 
themselves to a long, slow, quiet day. It was not one of 
the days on which Georgia visited her patient at the Palace, 
and therefore Lady Haigh and she wrote up their diaries 
with great industry, compiled several lengthy descriptive 
letters for the benefit of friends at home, and filled in odd 
corners of time with reading and talking. As the afternoon 
wore on, Lady Haigh went to remind the cook to make a 
particular kind of cake, likely to be appreciated after a long, 
dusty ride, for tea, and Georgia was left alone on the terrace. 

As she sat there reading, the noise of horses’ feet in the 
outer court came to her ears, and she dropped her book, 
wondering whether the party had already returned. Pres- 
ently Fitz Anstruther made his appearance under the arch- 
way which furnished a means of communication between 
the two courtyards, and catching sight of Georgia on the 
terrace, hurried towards her, followed by Dr Headlam. 
Fitz had something in his hand, carefully wrapped up in 
leaves and tied with wisps of grass, and as he reached the 
top of the steps he deposited it at Georgia’s feet. 


EAST MEETS WEST. 


115 


“ There, Miss Keeling,” he cried, in high delight, ** Fve 
got a spotted viper for you, for the collection ! He’s a really 
fine beast ; that measly old specimen the doctor got hold 
of hasn’t a look-in compared with him. See him, now,” and 
he unrolled the wrappings and displayed, as he said, a 
remarkably good specimen of the deadliest snake known 
to Kubhet-ul-Haj. It was only about twenty-seven inches 
long, but the spots, from which the Mission had given it 
its hopelessly unscientific name, were unusually brilliant. 

“You very nearly had the chance of labelling him as a 
murderer,” Fitz went on, holding up the snake’s head and 
examining its fangs with the air of a connoisseur. “He 
reared up suddenly, just behind North, and had his head 
stretched out to strike. North was leaning on his elbow 
on the cushions, and when he saw all the Ethiopians staring 
at him as pale as death, he turned round. There was no 
time to move away, and he cut at the thing with his knife 
and missed. We were eating fruit just then, all smothered 
in snow from the hills. Stratford had his revolver out in a 
moment, and was going to fire, but I yelled out to him to 
stop. I didn’t want the skin spoilt, and I knew that a shot 
at that distance would smash the head all to smithereens. 
I had my riding-crop handy, and I jumped up and managed 
to catch the beast such a whack that it broke his spine or 
something. Anyhow, he was killed, and I brought him 
home all the way on purpose for you. Miss Keeling.” 

Georgia had turned pale and stepped back a little as Fitz 
looked up for her approval Seeing her hesitation, Dr 
Headlam interposed. 

“ It really was very neatly done, Miss Keeling, though it 
was a risky thing, both for Anstruther and North. When 
I saw the crop come down, I could hardly believe that in 
his ardour for science Anstruther had not sacrificed North. 
It was a frightfully near business.” 


116 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ Who cares about JS'orth 1 ” Fitz wanted to know. “ It’s 
a jolly good specimen, Miss Keeling, and your beast is better 
than the doctor’s, at any rate. Your collection will take the 
cake now, I know.” 

“Must it be stuffed?” asked Georgia, with unwonted 
timidity. “ I don’t like it. It — it frightens me.” 

“ Oh, Miss Keeling ! ” cried Fitz, deeply wounded. But 
Dr Headlam interposed again. 

“I should be pleased to stuff it for you. Miss Keeling; 
but don’t you think that under the circumstances it would 
be better to take it home in spirit ? It is a new species, so 
far as we know, and this is quite the finest specimen we 
have come across, so that some toxicologist might be glad to 
dissect it. I think we must preserve it in the interests of 
science.” 

“Oh yes, of course, in the interests of science,” said 
Georgia, unsteadily. “It is really very foolish of me to 
object to it,” she went on, with a nervous little laugh. “ I 
can stand most creatures, but snakes are such horrible 
things. It makes me feel quite queer.” 

“ I’m awfully sorry,” said Fitz, moved to compunction. 
“ I never thought you mightn’t like it. Miss Keeling. “FU 
tell my boy to throw the beast away at once.” 

“ Oh no, please don’t,” said Georgia, “ if Dr Headlam is 
kind enough to preserve it. You will keep it over at 
your house with the rest of the things, won’t you, doctor? 
And you mustn’t think I am not pleased with it, Mr 
Anstruther. It was most kind and considerate of you to 
think of me at such an exciting moment, and I shall value 
the snake always as a memorial of your bravery and cool- 
ness,” and Georgia rushed away to her own room, where 
she threw herself upon the divan and broke into wild peals 
of laughter. That Fitz should think of saving the snake’s 
skin whole for her when Dick Korth’s life was at stake ! 


EAST MEETS WEST. 


117 


It was too funny ! Georgia laughed till she cried, and 
Lady Haigh came in and accused her of going into hysterics 
— an accusation which was vehemently denied — and ad- 
ministered cold water and particularly pungent smelling- 
salts. 

But the snake was duly deposited in a huge bottle of 
spirit, and, in common with the rest of the collection, be- 
came a prominent object in Dr Headlam’s waiting-room. 
It inspired both awe and interest in the patients, especially 
after Fitz — who sometimes assisted the doctor in receiving 
his visitors — had delivered a lecture on the subject. 

“ I don’t know when I have laughed so much,’' said Dr 
Headlam, telling the story after dinner that evening. “ 1 
happened to be a little late in going into the surgery this 
morning, but when I got near the door I became aware 
that Anstruther was improving the shining hour in the 
waiting-room. His discourse sounded so interesting that 
I lay low just outside and listened. It was delivered in 
English, helped out with all the Eastern words he knew, 
but it was so vividly illustrated by gestures that it seemed 
to have no difficulty in penetrating into the minds of all 
the patients. ‘ These all devils,’ he informed them, point- 
ing to the bottles of specimens ; ‘ big devils, little devils, 
all shut up safe. See this one?’ he took down the cele- 
brated snake, which certainly does look rather vicious, 
coiled up in its bottle. ‘This snake-devil — ghoul— jinni 
— shaitan ; you see ? This one, eye-devil,’ pointing to that 
diseased eye which I removed for a man a fortnight ago, 
and took such pains to preserve, ‘ finger-devil, tongue-devil,’ 
and so on. ‘How, you like me to open one of these 
bottles ? ’ A delicious shiver of anticipation went through 
the audience as he took down the snake again. ‘You 
know what will happen if I throw it down ? There will 
be a great crash, and you will smell the vilest smell you 


118 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


ever smelt in your lives, and you will see — what you will 
see, and the devil will he loose/ hTow, one, two, three 

and ’ hut they were all on their knees begging and 

imploring him not to do it, and I judged it as well to make 
my appearance at that juncture.” 

“ You win have the town-boys raiding your diggings and 
destroying the bottles to see what happens when the devil 
does get loose,” said Stratford. 

“ I don’t think so,” returned the doctor. “ They are all 
so frightened that it is as much as I can do now to get 
them into the same room with the coUection. It is as good 
as a watch-dog to me.” 

“ Anstruther wiU have to be careful,” said Sir Dugald, 
with an approach to a frown. “We don’t want our char- 
acters blackened by any suspicion of dealings with infernal 
powers. I rather wish you had broken one of the buttles 
before them, doctor, to convince them that it was a joke.” 

“Eather it would have convinced them that I was let- 
ting out a pestilence on the country,” said the doctor; 
“and they would simply have gone away and died of 
fright, which would he clear proof that I was their mur- 
derer. I think we are safer with the bottles unbroken.” 

“ I never like fooling about with supernatural nonsense 
in these countries,” said Sir Dugald. “ It gives the people 
a handle, and they are not likely to he slow in taking it. 
As we four are alone together, I may give you a hint that 
I expect trouble before long. Things have been going too 
smoothly of late, and Kustendjian tells me that Hicks said 
to him yesterday, ‘ Your old man has squared Fath-ud-Din 
nicely up to now; hut what will he do when the bill 
comes in 1 He ought to know by this time that the man 
who calls for the drinks pays.^ I cannot flatter myself, 
unfortunately, that I have squared Fath-ud-Din ; hut if he 
considers that I have attempted to do it, it is quite on the 


EAST MEETS WEST. 


119 


cards that he will send in his bill. We can refuse pay- 
ment, of course ; hut I am afraid that will not better our 
position very much.” 

The justice of Sir Dugald’s words was recognised a little 
later, after another mysterious evening visit from Fath-ud- 
Din. The Vizier came to the Mission because he wished 
to know when his rival was to be permanently removed 
from his path. He had done all in his power to smooth 
the progress of the negotiations ; but Sir Dugald had made 
no attempt to accuse Jahan Beg to the King or to demand 
his extradition. The answer was simple. Sir Dugald had 
declared his readiness to demand the surrender of Jahan 
Beg if it could be proved that he was in exile in conse- 
quence of any crime committed on British territory ; but 
not a vestige of evidence that such was the case had been 
brought forward, and it was impossible to extradite him 
merely for the sake of pleasing the Grand Vizier. On 
hearing this, Fath-ud-Din flew into a transport of rage, and, 
from the words he let fall in his anger. Sir Dugald gathered 
that he had been expected to be prepared with a case 
against Jahan Beg, and false witnesses to support it, in 
return for the Vizier’s help. This was a little too much 
even for Sir Dugald’s self-control, and, in the few minutes 
that followed, Fath-ud-Din probably heard a larger number 
of home-truths, delivered in a cold, judicial voice that was 
more efi’ective than any amount of shouting, than he had 
ever done before in his life. Baffled and disappointed, the 
Minister left the Mission, muttering curses between his 
teeth, and was observed by Kustendjian to pause outside 
and shake his fist at the building, and to spit towards the 
flagstaff on which the Union-jack was wont to be hoisted 
in the outer courtyard. From which signs the discerning 
Armenian inferred, as Mr Hicks had done before him, that 
there was trouble brewing. 


120 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


CHAPTEK IX. 

STRAINED RELATIONS. 

On the following morning there was no change to be 
observed in the aspect of the Mission. Only the gentlemen 
of the party were acquainted with the fact of the Vizier’s 
sudden declaration of war, and they shared Sir Dugald’s 
opinion that it would be bad policy to allow Eath-ud-Din 
to see that his threats had any effect upon their minds. 
The great gates were therefore opened as usual to allow the 
customary throng of country-people and other sellers of 
fresh provisions to enter and hold their market in the outer 
court, and the flag, hoisted at sunrise, floated proudly from 
its staff in front of Bachelors’ Buildings. 

Eitz Anstruther left the Mission early that morning on 
an errand of his own. He had set his heart on getting 
Miss Keeling a Persian kitten in the bazaar, and 
immediately after disposing of his chota hazri he induced 
the interpreter to come out with him and assist him in 
making his purchase, as, although he had succeeded in 
making an Ethiopian audience understand his scientific 
lecture, he felt a well-grounded distrust of his own powers 
of conducting a bargain in the currency of the country. 
The absence of the two was soon discovered ; but although 
Sir Dugald testified some displeasure when he found that 
Kustendjian was not at hand to go on with the drafting 
of the treaty, no anxiety was felt as to their safety, since 
none of the staff had hesitated to walk or ride about the 
city without an escort after the first week of their stay 
there. 

It was considered advisable to take no notice of the 


STB AIN ED RELATIONS. 


121 


Vizier’s visit, and to exhibit a readiness to continue the 
negotiations as before, and therefore Sir Dugald and his 
staff assembled as usual in what was called the Durbar-hall, 
a large airy room on the ground-floor of Bachelors’ Buildings. 
Here they awaited the appearance either of Kustendjian or 
of an emissary from the Palace, Dr Headlam lingering for 
a talk before departing to his expectant patients opposite. 
He had just heaved a sigh and taken up his helmet, 
preparatory to seeking his own domain, when a distant 
sound, gradually increasing in volume, broke upon the ears 
of those in the room. It might have been rolling thunder, 
or the roar of wild beasts, or the rush of a torrent ; hut 
there was no reason why it should be any of these. Sii' 
Dugald raised his head and listened attentively. 

“ I have heard that in the Mutiny,” he said. “ The 
town is up about something, and they are coming in this 
direction. Have you all your revolvers here, gentlemen 1 ” 

Each man produced his weapon promptly, and Sir 
Dugald led the way out on the verandah, the whole party 
holding their breath to listen to the sound. The servants 
had noticed it also, and were standing about in the 
courtyard with pale faces, listening intently. Some, as 
the noise grew nearer, crept back to their own quarters 
in terror, the rest gathered in a group and looked to 
their masters for orders. 

“ Turn aU those Ethiopians out,” said Sir Dugald, 
pointing to the salesmen and women who had been 
exhibiting their wares in the courtyard, “ and shut the 
gates.” 

Ho further command was needed. The servants obeyed 
the order zealously, bundling the unhappy country-people 
out neck and crop, and throwing their possessions after 
them. But before they could clear the courtyard of the 
bewildered and terrified crowd there was a fresh commotion 


122 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


at the gateway, and Fitz forced his way in, followed by 
Kustendjian, and rushed up to Sir Dugald. 

“ There’s a regular howling mob coming this way, sir ! ” 
he cried. “We saw old Fath-ud-Din’s steward, who goes to 
the Palace with him, and another man, stirring them up 
against us in the bazaar, and when we came away they 
followed us, and then chased us. They are saying that we 
have annexed the country, and that the flag is the sign of 
it. They mean to tear it down.” 

“Ah!” said Sir Dugald, quietly, stepping down from 
the verandah. “ Put your revolvers into your pockets, 
gentlemen ; we won’t use them at present. Fetch your 
riding- whips, if you please, or a good strong lithe cane, 
if you have one, any of you. We will not shed blood 
unless we are driven to it.” 

The young men rushed to their quarters for the required 
weapons, returning to find Sir Dugald standing beside 
the flagstaff with his revolver in his hand. The confusion 
at the gate had been increased by the arrival of the mob 
outside, for they found their entrance impeded not only by 
the servants who were doing their best to close the doors, 
but by the mixed multitude of their own people who were 
in process of being expelled. But the piles of merchandise 
thrown down or dropped in the gateway made it impossible 
for the doors to be shut, and Sir Dugald turned to Fitz. 

“Go back to the verandah, Mr Anstruther, and blow 
your whistle to call the servants in. Concentrate them in 
the front rooms on that floor, and serve out the rifles 
and ammunition; but, remember, not a shot is to be 
fired so long as we are out here. It would be the death 
of all of us. If we are driven in we will bring the flag 
with us ; but until we come, you fire at your peril.” 

As Fitz obeyed, and the sound of his whistle rang out 
clear and shrill, penetrating even the hubbub at the gate. 


STRAINED RELATIONS. 


123 


and causing the servants to abandon their futile efforts 
and turn to run to the house, Sir Dugald addressed his 
companions. 

“ Stratford, you are the tallest. Keep your revolver out, 
and stand by the flagstaff. Shoot down the first man that 
lays a hand on the halliards. Ko j on second thoughts I 
will take that post myself. It is possible that I am a little 
cooler in the head than you, and it is certain that you are 
a good deal stronger of arm than I am. Take your places 
in front of the flag, gentlemen ; that’s it. Your business 
is to let no one pass you. This is not an armed mob; 
it is just Fath-ud-Din’s hadmasJieSf and sticks and whips 
ought to keep them hack. I needn’t teU you to lay it 
on well. Kever mind how hard you hit.” 

“ Here they come ! ” said the doctor ; and as the last 
servant broke out of the crowd by the gate and fled to 
the house the mob burst in with a roar. They made 
straight for the flag, but paused and recoiled at the sight 
of the three younger men with their whips, and Sir Dugald, 
revolver in hand, leaning idly against the flagstaff. 

^‘Kot much pluck in tJiemP^ muttered Dick, disgustedly; 
but as though they had understood the disparaging words, 
the mob gathered their courage together and came on again. 
In a moment the younger men found themselves engaged in a 
furious hand-to-hand encounter, in which fists and whips were 
opposed to the force of numbers. Fitz declared afterwards 
that he could hear over all the din of the struggle the sound 
of the blows as they fell, although the howling of those who 
received them ought to have drowned the noise. Once or 
twice Sir Dugald raised his revolver and let it drop again, 
for in the whole course of the short, sharp fight no one 
actually got within the ring of defenders, and presently 
Fitz, exceeding his orders, seized the psychological instant 
for a most opportune diversion. Besides rifles, he had 


124 


PEACE WITH HONOUK. 


provided the servants with all the sticks he could muster; 
and when he saw the mob begin to give way, he led forth 
half his force to clear the courtyard. Fear of the defenders 
plainly visible at the windows had hitherto kept the space 
between the flagstaff and the house free of intruders, and 
now the sturdy frontiersmen, covered by the rifles of their 
friends behind, advanced against the foe, laying about them 
as they came with hearty goodwill. Gradually the mob 
yielded their ground. Firing they might perhaps have 
faced, but this extremely unheroic method of fighting 
disgusted them with the sport. As the defenders closed 
their ranks and pressed the fugitives harder, the retreat 
became a rout, nay, a headlong race — an obstacle race — in 
which every man was eager to save his back from blows. 
The last remnants of the mob struggled through the gate- 
way at last, and the courtyard was clear, and the honour 
of the flag maintained, without the shedding of a drop 
of blood. 

Clear that rubbish away and close the gates,” said Sir 
Dugald. “We will keep them shut in future, and the 
people must bring their things to sell in the street out- 
side. That market of theirs nearly did for us to-day.” 

Although the non-arrival of any help from the authorities 
might have led to the conclusion that the riot had been 
inaudible in other parts of the city, no sooner was it over, 
and the enemy driven out, than an official appeared from 
the King to congratulate the victors — exactly, said Fitz, as 
he would have done had the result gone the other way, 
save that his congratulations might then have had a little 
sincerity in them. But the messenger who came to con- 
gratulate went away grave, for Sir Dugald committed to 
him a full statement of the morning’s proceedings, to be 
laid before the King, with the intimation that unless 
apologies were at once offered and the instigators of the 


STRAINED RELATIONS. 


125 


demonstration punished, the negotiations would be broken 
off forthwith and the Mission would return to Khemistan. 
There was no doubt that it was exceedingly injudicious 
of Tath-ud-Din to have allowed his servants to be seen 
stirring up the mob; and the official, in deep perplexity, 
turned over in his mind the relative disadvantages of 
offending the Yizier by informing the King of the truth, 
and on the other hand, of angering the King if Sir Dugald 
took his departure, and the facts which had brought it 
about became known. 

How the messenger settled matters with his conscience 
was unknown for the present to the party at the Mission, 
for the next person they saw was Mr Hicks, who flew to 
the spot on the wings of zeal the moment that the news 
of the outbreak reached him. Stratford declared that 
his countenance expressed deep disappointment when he 
realised that the courtyard was not filled with the dead 
and dying, and that the flag hung unscathed ; but the 
doctor maintained that he was prejudiced, and that Mr 
Hicks had hurried to offer his help in the defence, heed- 
less of the danger he might incur in meeting the defeated 
mob. However this might be, Mr Hicks warmed with 
enthusiasm when he was told the story of the morning, 
and finally advanced to Sir Dugald and grasped him by 
the hand. 

“ General,” he said ; “ shake ! You are a white man, 
you are. You have licked that poor ordinary crowd of 
niggers in a way to earn you the eternal gratitude of every 
Western stranger that circumstances may drive to sojourn 
in this uncared-for state. But I guess that your troubles 
are only beginning, sir.” 

“ Possibly,” said Sir Dugald, with perfect unconcern. 

“ Well, if things look black, you have only to pass me 
the word. General, and I will vamoose my ranche yonder 


126 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


and come and give you a hand. I should he right down 
proud to fight shoulder to shoulder with the man that turned 
hack that moh without shedding a drop of hlood.” 

“You are very kind,” said Sir Dugald, with a complete 
lack of enthusiasm. “I can assure you that things must 
go very hadly with us before we seek to involve you in our 
troubles” — a reply delivered with so much urbanity that 
Mr Hicks could not at first decide whether his offer was 
accepted or refused. 

The next visitor appeared in the course of the afternoon, 
and was no other than the Grand Vizier himself. It was 
evident that the royal messenger had decided upon telling 
his master the truth, for Fath-ud-Din came to offer suitable 
apologies for the conduct of his retainers. The steward, he 
said, was an old family servant, who, owing to his constant 
intercourse with his master, had imbibed from him such 
exalted ideas of patriotism that on hearing the treaty dis- 
cussed, and conceiving it to be unduly advantageous to 
England, he had felt moved to stir up the townspeople 
against it, his religious zeal having also been inflamed by 
the memories and hardships incidental to the month of 
Eamadan, which had just ended. The other instigator of 
the outbreak was a young theological student, a member of 
a class which was often unruly and troublesome, and which 
had great influence with the people. It was preposterous 
to imagine that the Vizier could have had any previous 
knowledge of the doings of these two fanatics, and he had 
come to declare his sorr(5w that it had been in the power of 
such wretches not only to annoy and alarm the Mission, 
but also to involve in their disgrace his own spotless name. 
He had given immediate orders that they were both to be 
severely punished, and if Sir Dugald liked, he would have 
them brought in and bastinadoed before him, so that he 
might assure himself that they had received their deserts. 


STRAINED RELATIONS. 


127 


In any case (as Sir Dugald politely declined the projffered 
satisfaction for himself, while intimating that he would 
send a representative to see that the punishment was duly 
carried out), he brought assurances that the King of aU 
kings felt the deepest regret for the way in which things 
had turned out, and entreated that the Envoy would not 
withdraw the light of his countenance from Kuhhet-ul-Haj, 
but would overlook the fright and annoyance which had 
been caused to the Mission, and remain in Ethiopia until 
the treaty had been duly concluded. 

“ Fright ] ” said Sir Dugald — for the Vizier had empha- 
sised the word, and repeated it more than once in different 
forms — ‘‘ I saw no particular signs of fright about our people. 
What we felt was more like disgust. Apart from the viola- 
tion of courtesy and propriety in the attack made on the 
flag, it was disagreeably close work down in the court there 
with that crowd pressing all round us. 

“ Ah, my lord the Envoy is a soldier, and knows not fear, 
and his young men are brave also,” replied Fath-ud-Din, 
stroking his beard ; “ but the women — my lord’s household 
— surely their hearts became as water when they heard the 
shouts of the people 1 ” 

“ This is the flrst I have heard of it, if they did,” replied 
Sir Dugald ; “but then, I was not in a position to observe 
their behaviour. Mr Anstruther, you were in command at 
the rear. What were the ladies doing while the fighting 
was going on? Was there any fainting or screaming?” 

“ Oh no, sir. The ladies were on our roof here, watching 
the fun.” 

“ But that was extremely injudicious. If we had been 
obliged to evacuate Bachelors’ Buildings, their presence 
would have added immensely to our difficulties. You 
should have ordered them down, and insisted on their 
returning to their own quarters.” 


128 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ So I did, sir.” There was a gleam of fun in Fitz’s eyes. 
“I ran up there myself to insist with greater effect, and 
they laughed at me. It was flat mutiny, but I could not 
spare sufficient men to put them under arrest.” 

“Ah, the women were driven mad by terror. Their 
feet were weighed down so that they could not move,” said 
Fath-ud-Din pityingly, when this had been translated to 
him. 

“And just at the beginning, sir,” Fitz went on to Sir 
Dugald, “ when there was that crush in the gateway. Miss 
Keeling sent her maid down to ask me whether I couldn’t 
tell the people not to move about quite so much, because 
she wanted to sketch them. That was how I first found 
out that Lady Haigh and she were up there ; but I didn’t 
think that the remark showed a proper sense of the serious- 
ness of the situation. I assure you that it pained me very 
much, sir.” 

“ Just translate that to the Vizier, Mr Kustendjian,” said 
Sir Dugald, but again incredulity was written on Fath-ud- 
Din’s face. 

“Surely my lord knows, as I do,” he said, “that the 
yoimg man is one of those who delight to laugh at the 
beards of their elders, and to utter the thing that is not 
true, to the confusion of their own faces V’ 

“ I see that we shall have to convince this gentleman by 
the evidence of his own senses,” remarked Sir Dugald, 
addressing no one in particular. “Mr Anstruther, would 
you be kind enough to find out what the ladies are doing 
now 1 ” 

“They are working on the terrace, sir,” said Fitz, return- 
ing, “ and the servants are just bringing in afternoon tea.” 

“Very weU. Be so good as to ask Lady Haigh to have 
coffee brought in as well, and tell her that Fath-ud-Din is 
coming to pay her a visit. She and Miss Keeling had 


STRAINED RELATIONS. 


129 


better put on those veils of theirs, by the bye, for we don’t 
want any more complications introduced into this business.” 

Fitz departed on his errand in high glee, and when a 
decent interval had been allowed for the transformation to 
be effected. Sir Dugald> after a few preliminary remarks 
tending to impress Fath-ud-Din with a sense of the great- 
ness of the honour about to be conferred upon him, led 
his guest into the inner courtyard, and up the steps to 
the terrace. Here, indeed, there was little sign of panic. 
There were books and work about, and Georgia’s sketching 
materials were visible in a corner. She herself had the 
Persian kitten, which Fitz had brought home in his pocket 
in the morning, asleep on her lap, while Lady Haigh was 
pouring out tea with a hand in which the keenest gaze could 
not distinguish the slightest tendency to tremble. The 
Vizier looked disappointed — this is putting it mildly, for 
the young men agreed afterwards that his expression was 
fiendish — but he appeared to be reflecting that the veils in 
which his hostesses were shrouded might be serving a useful 
purpose in concealing the traces of fear, for presently he 
turned to Sir Dugald. 

“ Let not my lord be offended if I entreat him to inquire 
of his household whether terror did not seize them this 
morning,” he said, meekly enough. 

“ By no means,” returned Sir Dugald, genially. “ Elma, 
the Vizier would like to know whether you were frightened 
when his people were kicking up that row in the courtyard ? ” 

“ Frightened 1” snapped Lady Haigh. “ What was there 
to be frightened about, I should like to know ^ ” The 
measureless scorn in her eyes and voice evidently reached 
Fath-ud-Din in spite of the double barrier of the foreign 
language and the hwrha, for he swallowed his cupful of 
scalding coffee hastily, and it was necessary to recover him 
from a choking fit before he could proceed with his inquiry. 


130 


PEACE WITH HONOUR 


“ Then will my lord ask the doctor lady, who has no hus- 
band to protect her with the might of his arm and the 
power of his name, whether she was not terrified V’ he 
asked. 

“ Frightened ? ” returned Georgia, when the question had 
been put to her. “ Oh dear, no ! I have a revolver. I 
think,” she added, carelessly, after a pause to let the infor- 
mation she had just given sink in, “ that it was only the 
kitten which was frightened. Poor little thing ! It was in 
a pitiable state when I rescued it from Mr Anstruther’s 
coat-pocket.” 

“ By the head of our lord the King,” hurst out Fath-ud- 
Din, rising hurriedly, “ these are no women, but fighting 
men ! ” 

“ Isn’t it worth your while, then, to strain a point in 
order to gain an alliance with a nation that has such 
women'?” asked Sir Dugald, seizing the opportunity to 
point a moral. 

“Kay, rather,” said the Vizier, retreating to the steps as 
he spoke, “ what are we doing to admit within our borders 
a nation whose very women are of such a temper as this*?” 

“ I’m sure that was the sweetest compliment that the 
Kew Woman has ever received,” said Dick to Georgia, as 
Sir Dugald, followed by Stratford and Fitz, escorted his 
discomfited guest across the courtyard. 

“ Major Korth,” said Lady Haigh, briskly, “ I consider 
that you are distinctly rude to your Chief’s wife. I don’t 
know whether you mean to deny me a share in Fath-ud- 
Din’s pretty speech, or to insinuate that I am a Kew 
Woman; but, in either case, I think that your conduct is 
sadly lacking in respect.” 

“I don’t think Major Korth meant to be rude. Lady 
Haigh,” said Georgia, playing with the kitten’s tail. “ His 
tongue ran away with him. It is a habit it has sometimes.” 


STRAINED RELATIONS. 


131 


** I apologise humbly, Lady Haigh,” said Dick. In any 
case, what I have just heard would have forced me to 
believe that the New Woman was very like the old one. 
Now if either you or Miss Keeling would do me the honour 
of having the last word, my submission would be complete.” 

“ The question is,” said Sir Dugald, returning to the tea- 
table with Stratford while Lady Haigh and Georgia were 
still laughing, “ what was it exactly that Fath-ud-Din hoped 
to gain by this attack on us 1 ” 

“ Then you don’t think he was trying to wipe out the 
Mission at one blow ? ” asked Stratford. 

“No, I don’t, unless he hoped that we should be pro- 
voked into firing on the mob, when the whole country 
would have risen against us. But I don’t fancy that was 
his game. I think he must have been trying to terrify us 
into withdrawing from Ethiopia at once, or else into bribing 
him largely to get the treaty signed immediately.” 

“ I think he has received a little enlightenment as to the 
possibility of squeezing us,” said Dick, with a grim smile. 
“ My only cause for misgiving is a doubt whether the 
ladies could ever again rise to the superhuman height of 
heroism they displayed just now. Any weakening in that 
attitude in the presence of danger might lead to unfavour- 
able remarks.” 

“ He is trying to punish us for what we said just now, 
Georgia,” said Lady Haigh, amiably. “ Never mind ; when 
the danger comes he shall see whether either of us weakens, 
as Mr Hicks would say.” 

And the matter dropped amidst general laughter, which 
was perhaps what Dick wanted, for after tea he asked for 
an interview with Sir Dugald, and laid before him various 
expedients for rendering the Mission more easily defensible. 
These measures he was authorised to adopt, but without 
alarming the ladies, and he flattered himself that he was 


132 


PEACE WITH HONOUE, 


successful in this, and that Lady Haigh and Georgia never 
perceived that he drilled the servants each morning in the 
outer court, or that he had divided them into watches, each 
of which took its turn in remaining under arms. He had 
the more reason for this belief of his, in that the ladies had 
other things to think of, for matters seemed to have quieted 
down, and Georgia went to the Palace as usual, while Sir 
Dugald’s audiences of the King were resumed, the subject 
of discussion at present being the exact wording of the 
treaty, the provisions of which had already been agreed 
upon. 

It was noticed by the members of the Mission that the 
King’s manner seemed to have changed since the outbreak, 
and that he was by no means so easy to please even as he 
had been. He cavilled at points which had already been 
definitely settled, and did his best to produce the impres- 
sion that he considered the treaty extremely disadvantageous 
to Ethiopia. This was the more serious in that Jahan Beg 
reported the reappearance upon the scene of the Scythian 
agent, with larger presents and more abundant promises, 
and it was calculated to suggest that the King wished to 
irritate Sir Dugald into breaking off the negotiations. But 
long experience of the East had made Sir Dugald the most 
patient of men — in public — and his staff were astonished at 
the mildness with which he altered the wording of a clause 
again and again, without ever abating one jot of the conces- 
sions he had determined to obtain. His mingled tact and 
resolution carried the day at last. The treaty was agreed 
upon in its entirety, and after being engrossed on parchment 
by the King’s scribes, was read through to the Envoy, be- 
hind whom stood the interpreter Kustendjian, ready to mark 
the slightest deviation from the prescribed formula. There 
now remained only the actual signing of the convention, and 
it was arranged that Eath-ud-Din should bring the instru- 


STKAINED RELATIONS. 


133 


ment, bearing the seals of the King and the Grand Vizier, 
to the Mission in the morning, there to receive Sir Dugald’s 
signature, after "which the British expedition might take its 
departure peacefully and honourably from Kubbet-ul-Haj. 

The day on "which the treaty "was to be signed was an 
important one also to Georgia, for she had decided, after 
much consultation with Dr Headlam, who could not, of 
course, see the patient, but who gave all the advice that his 
experience of like cases suggested to him, to undertake at 
last the operation on the Queen’s eyes. The state of the 
patient’s general health was not yet as satisfactory as her 
doctor could have desired, but when any day might bring 
about the departure of the Mission, Georgia felt that she 
dared not delay longer. Even as it was, there was little 
hope that she would be able to be present when, after the 
necessary interval, the bandages could be removed from the 
Queen’s eyes, and her professional conscience was troubled 
at the possibility of leaving her work only half-done. But 
Sir Dugald was far too anxious to get his followers safely 
out of Ethiopia to be willing to spend a week or a fortnight 
longer in the country in order that Georgia might see the 
result of her handiwork, and all she could do was to explain 
everything very carefully, with Eahah’s help, to Kur Jahan, 
and give her full directions in case of the occurrence of 
various possible contingencies. The actual operation was 
performed without a hitch, and Georgia felt deeply relieved 
as she fastened the bandages, impressing on the Queen and 
all her attendants that they were on no account to be re- 
moved until the specified time had elapsed. The Mission 
was not likely, in any case, to take its departure until three 
or four days had passed, and she promised to come in again 
at least once more in order to note the patient’s state, and 
oftener if she were summoned. 

Kur Jahan escorted her to the door of the harem, plying 


134 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


her with questions as to the treatment the patient ought to 
receive, and the means by which Georgia had gained her 
medical skill. The girl had already proved herself such an 
apt pupil that Georgia sighed again over the thought that a 
medical career was an impossibility for her, but she kept her 
promise loyally to Jahan Beg. The litter was not ready 
when they reached the harem courtyard, and while it was 
being prepared she stood in the doorway talking to !N’ur 
Jahan, but leaving the questions as to her own hospital ex- 
periences unanswered, devoted the time to reiterating her 
directions for the Queen’s treatment. Presently a burst of 
laughter and loud talking reached her ears from the rooms 
on the other side of the courtyard, and she looked across to 
a balcony in which the forms of several women could be 
descried. They were evidently attendants on the King’s 
second wife, Antar Khan’s mother, who was frantically 
jealous of her rival owing to her monopoly of the services 
of the doctor lady, and who had shown this feeling in 
various unpleasant ways. She was much too proud to in- 
vite a visit from Georgia, or even to feign illness as an 
excuse for summoning her, and therefore she and her faction 
chose to regard the doctor lady as the dirt under their feet. 
They drew aside their clothes when they passed her, affected 
to consider the rooms in which she had been received as 
unclean, and seized every opportunity of insulting her from 
a safe distance. 

The adherents of Bustam Khan’s mother, on the other 
hand, fully appreciated the reasons for this state of things, 
and exulted over their opponents on every possible occasion. 
They prided themselves on their exclusive possession of the 
doctor lady, and would have rejoiced in the opportunity of 
denying her services to the opposite party in a case of dan- 
gerous illness. They had just shouted across the courtyard 
the news of the satisfactory performance of the operation, 


STRAINED RELATIONS. 


135 


and their rivals were naturally moved to wrath. Hence 
they had assembled in their balcony to point the finger of 
scorn at Georgia, and to jeer at her and ^N'ur Jahan, whose 
own position in the Palace was so uncertain that she dared 
not run the risk of getting her husband into disgrace by 
appealing to the King. 

“Thou art very proud, 0 doctor lady,” cried a strong- 
lunged damsel, leaning over the rail of the balcony, “ hut 
when next we see thee thou wilt be entreating mercy at our 
lady’s feet.” 

Pahah translated the prophecy to her mistress at once, 
and Georgia, in sudden alarm, turned to Hur Jahan. 

“ You are our friend, Kur Jahan ? If you knew of any 
plot against the Mission, you would warn me 1 ” 

“ I would risk my life and all that I have to warn thee 
in such a case, 0 doctor lady,” replied Kur Jahan, earnestly; 
“hut what I fear is a plot of which I should know 
nothing.” 

With these ominous words ringing in her ears, Georgia 
entered the litter, and returned to the Mission in a some- 
what perturbed state of mind. It seemed, however, that 
there was nothing going on that need excite her alarm. 
The Grand Yizier and his attendants had just brought the 
treaty to be ratified, and Georgia caught a glimpse of the 
assemblage as she passed through into the inner courtyard 
with Eahah. Had she guessed what was about to happen 
in the Durbar-hall, nothing would have induced her to leave 
the outer court. 

On the table before Sir Dugald lay the treaty, written 
out with the greatest care and delicacy on a huge sheet 
of parchment, and displaying the most wonderful flourishes 
and other decorations at the beginning of every clause. At 
the other side of the table stood Fath-ud-Din, his attendants 
crowding behind him and peering eagerly over his shoulder 


136 


PEACE WITH HONOUR, 


to watch Sir Dugald. The Envoy had taken the pen from 
the hand of Eitz, and was glancing down the parchment for 
the exact place at which he was to affix his signature. To 
all appearance the treaty was the same that had been read 
over to him the day before, and yet some suspicion entered 
his mind, prompted by his instinctive caution. He would 
not trust to his own slight knowledge of the Ethiopian 
language, but called Kustendjian forward. 

“Be so good as to summarise that for me,” he said, 
laying his finger on the clause which concerned the 
appointment of a British Kesident, with jurisdiction over 
British subjects in Ethiopia, who should take up his abode 
at Iskandarbagh. 

The Armenian's eyes grew wide as he advanced and 
scanned the passage pointed out by Sir Dugald. “The 
Kesident is to have no power to decide any cause in dispute 
between a British subject and an Ethiopian, nor between 
two British subjects when the question concerns property 
or other interests situated in Ethiopia, your Excellency,” he 
said, in a low voice. 

“And that,” said Sir Dugald, indicating the clause by 
which British goods, with the exception of munitions of 
war and ardent spirits, were to be allowed entrance into 
Ethiopia upon payment of duties not exceeding a certain 
percentage of the value, which were to be imposed by the 
King and approved by England. 

“The minimum duty is to be a hundred per cent ad 
valorem, and there is no proviso as to the approval of her 
Majesty’s Government, your Excellency. Every one of the 
clauses has had additions or omissions made in it, which 
render it absolutely useless for all practical purposes.” 

“Thank you, Mr Kustendjian.” Sir Dugald laid down 
the pen deliberately, and took up the treaty. The Ethiopians 
present had watched his actions with eager interest, but 


CAUGHT AND CAGED. 


137 


could read nothing from his face. Now, however, he 
seemed to their guilty consciences to rise and tower above 
them (under normal circumstances he was under middle 
height), as he tore the tough parchment across and across, 
and flung the fragments over the table to Fath-ud-Din. 

“ Take those to your master,” he said ; “ and he thankful 
that I don’t call the servants to drive you out of the court- 
yard as they drove your hired ruffians last week. The 
Mission leaves Kuhbet-ul-Haj to-day.” 


CHAPTER X. 

CAUGHT AND GAGED. 

When the Glrand Vizier and his companions had been 
conducted to the door by the servants, and the gates had 
closed behind them, Sir Dugald turned from the table at 
which he had been standing motionless, and addressed 
Dick. The work of months had been overthrown, and the 
success by which he had hoped to put the crowning touch 
to his official career rendered impossible of attainment ; but 
his first thought was to vindicate the outraged dignity of 
his country, insulted in his person. 

“When you made your inspection of the stables this 
morning. Major North, were the animals all in 1 ” 

“ Yes, sir ; this is my weekly inspection, and the camels 
which had been out at pasture were brought in by their 
drivers to be passed. They all looked very fit; but we 
have not much forage for them in store.” 

“We must chance that. I should be glad if you would 


138 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


have our riding-horses, together with a sufficient number of 
camels to carry the tents and their furniture, brought round 
here two hours before sunset. It would be impossible to 
travel far to-day, but if we are outside the city the required 
moral effect will be produced. I shall leave you and 
Anstruther behind to bring on the stores and the heavy 
luggage. We will travel by slow stages until you come up 
with us, and then we must make forced marches, and get 
out of the country as fast as possible, for we shall have no 
escort this time.” 

For the first time in his life Dick hesitated to obey an 
order. 

But the ladies, sir,” he suggested. “ Is it safe?” 

‘^Is it safe for them here? The sooner we have them 
out of the city, the safer they will be,” and Dick, silenced, 
went to do his errand at the various stables in which the 
baggage-animals of the Mission were quartered. 

To say that the sudden order to pack up and be ready t® 
start on the homeward journey that very afternoon was 
startling to the ladies would be to mince matters, for it 
came upon them like a thunder-clap ; but Lady Haigh was 
an old traveller, whom no vicissitudes could disturb for 
long, and Georgia was a soldier’s daughter, and they were 
both resolved that the honour of England should not be 
dragged in the dust on their account by the delay of a 
moment after the appointed hour of starting. Accordingly, 
they set to work immediately to take down and wrap up 
and stow away all the possessions with which they had 
made the house homelike during their tenancy of it, and 
were in the act of packing their dresses (which, as every 
lady will know, always occupy the topmost place in a box), 
when Dick made his appearance on the terrace. Georgia, 
who was standing at the table pulling out the sleeves of 
a favourite silk blouse, which she had just rescued from the 


CAUGHT AND CAGED. 


139 


ruthless hands of Rahah, looked at him in surprise, for his 
face was grave and set. 

“ Please don’t say that you want us to start this moment,’^ 
she said, cheerfully. “ Lady Haigh and I are willing to 
make any sacrifice in jeason for our country, hut we had 
rather not leave our best dresses behind.” 

“ It won’t be necessary,” returned Dick, trying, but with 
poor success, to speak in the same tone. “We shall not 
leave to-day, after all.” 

“Not leave to-day 1 ” cried Lady Haigh, coming out on 
the terrace, and folding up a skirt at the same time. “ Then 
when do we start 

“ Not just yet, I fear. The fact is, the King is trying on 
a little joke with us. He has fetched away all our horses 
and camels, and we can’t get them back.” 

“ But when did he do it 1 and where are they gone ” 
asked Lady Haigh, in hot indignation. 

“ He must have done it immediately after I had come 
away from the stables after picking out the beasts for your 
start this evening. Where they are gone I don’t know; but 
we can’t hire any others, and we can’t very well walk, and 
therefore I suppose we must stay here.” 

“ But it is such a bad precedent to let him get the better of 
us like this !” cried Lady Haigh. “ It is such absolute steal- 
ing, too. Are the servants gone as well as the animals 1 ” 

“ Yes, they have all been marched off to fresh quarters 
somewhere. That thins our forces sadly.” 

“ So it does,” Lady Haigh assented, gravely. “ But 
never mind ; if the King won’t let us leave the city, we will 
make ourselves happy where we are.” 

“ And perhaps,” suggested Georgia, “ it is merely that the 
King is sorry for his treachery about the treaty, and wants 
to prevent Sir Dugald’s leaving Kubbet-ul-Haj in anger. 
He may mean to resume the negotiations to-morrow.” 


140 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ He may,” agreed Dick, but his face was not hopeful as 
he returned across the courtyard, while the ladies took the 
things out of the boxes they had just packed. Still, the 
events of the next morning seemed to confirm Georgia’s 
cheerful augury, for an embassy came from the King to 
Sir Dugald, headed, not by the Grand Yizier (possibly he 
felt a slight doubt as to the nature of the reception he was 
likely to meet with), but by the official who had super- 
intended the establishment of the Mission in its present 
quarters. In the message which he brought, Sir Dugald 
was entreated to overlook the incident of the day before, 
which had been devised by the King merely as a test of his 
shrewdness, and was in no way a serious attempt to induce 
him to sign a false treaty. If he would only come to the 
Palace to-day, the original treaty should be ready for his 
signature, and the King would affix his seal to it in his 
presence. At first Sir Dugald returned an absolute refusal 
to this invitation, but the messenger reappeared with it 
twice, adding such solemn and earnest assurances of its 
genuine character, that he consented to talk the matter over 
with his staff. Lady Haigh and Georgia invited themselves 
to assist at the discussion, and the first thing that opened 
Georgia’s eyes to the gravity of the situation was the fact 
that Sir Dugald made no protest against the irregularity of 
this proceeding. 

“You won’t go, Dugald said Lady Haigh, anxiously. 
“Probably it is only a trap. Eemember Macnaghten.” 

“ Couldn’t you manage to suggest any more cheerful 
reminiscence ? ” asked Sir Dugald. 

“ You really mean to go, sir ” asked Dick. 

“ I think so. After all, what happened yesterday may 
have been only a trick, as this man says, though I don’t 
think the King would have hesitated to profit by it if I had 
signed the false treaty. At any rate, so long as there is a 


CAUGHT AND CAGED. 


141 


chance of onr coming off victorious, we ought not to let it 
slip. This treaty is of immense importance, for it brings 
Ethiopia within our sphere of influence, and when once it is 
concluded, we can snap our fingers at Scythia and Neustria. 
You see as well as I do that if we withdraw now and nego- 
tiations are resumed later, Scythia will have had time to 
slip in and conclude her treaty. I grant that we have a 
very slender chance of success, hut if it depends on me I 
will not lose it. Still, I don’t wish to take you into danger 
against your better judgment, gentlemen. Your lives are at 
stake as much as mine, and if you think it advisable not to 
go to the Palace, I will dispense with your attendance on 
this occasion.” 

“We will go wherever you go. Sir Dugald,” said Dick. 

“Wherever you go,” echoed the rest. 

“ But I can’t take aU of you,” said Sir Dugald. “ Two 
of you must stay here and look after the ladies. I don’t 
like dividing our force, but it would be poor strategy to let 
them be seized as hostages while we were away. You see 
what I mean, Elma? I will leave you North and the 
doctor as a garrison, and you and the servants must put 
yourselves under their orders and help to defend the place 
if it is attacked.” 

“No, Dugald,” returned Lady Haigh, resolutely, regard- 
less of the fact that she was indulging in open mutiny, 
“ unless Major North goes with you, you shall not go to the 
Palace at aU. Dr Headlam and we can defend ourselves 
quite well behind stone walls ; but it would be madness for 
you to trust yourself outside without a man with you that 
knew anything about fighting. Only take Major North, and 
I am content.” 

Eor peace’ sake, Sir Dugald accepted this view of the case, 
and a little later the party set out with the ambassador, 
who had brought with him several horses from the King’s 


142 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


stables for them to ride — huge fat animals, most of them a 
peculiar pinkish-white in colour, with highly arched necks 
and flowing manes and tails decorated with ribbons and 
sham jewellery. They were provided with high native 
saddles and elaborate saddle-cloths, and the ambassador ex- 
plained that they were intended as gifts to Sir Dugald and 
to his staff. Asked what had become of the animals be- 
longing to the Mission, he confessed ingenuously that the 
King had had them removed in order to frustrate Sir 
Dugald’s design of leaving the city, but that they would be 
returned as soon as ever the treaty was signed, so that the 
Envoy and his young men might depart in peace. 

Arrived at the Palace, the members of the Mission were 
conducted to the usual hall of audience. It was not with- 
out some unpleasant sensations that they heard the gates of 
the courtyard close behind them, and Dick involuntarily 
loosened his sword in the scabbard, and noticed that Strat- 
ford and Fitz were feeling whether their revolvers were safe. 
Sir Dugald alone showed no signs of disturbance, even when 
on reaching the hall he was requested to enter the King’s 
presence-chamber by himself, the rest remaining in the outer 
room. Before he could answer, his staff pressed around him, 
regardless of etiquette. 

“ Don’t go, sir,” said Dick. “ It’s a trap.” 

“ They mean mischief. Sir Dugald,” said Stratford. “The 
King has never asked to see you alone before.” 

“ Let us put a pistol to this fellow’s head, sir, and keep 
him as a hostage until we are safely back at the Mission,” 
suggested Eitz, looking daggers at the smiling official, who 
was bowing and spreading out his hands in token of the 
welcome which awaited Sir Dugald in the King’s presence. 

“ Nonsense ! ” said Sir Dugald, irritably, motioning Strat- 
ford aside. “You mean well, gentlemen; but we can’t 
make fools of ourselves in this way. Look there. You see 


CAUGHT AND CAGED. 


143 


that there’s nothing but a curtain between the two rooms, 
and you would hear the slightest scuffle or cry for help. I 
give you free leave to interfere if you do hear anything of 
the kind, but pray keep cool.” 

He went on, following the official, and passed under the 
lieavy curtain which covered the doorway of the inner room. 
Some minutes of painful suspense ensued, while the three 
Englishmen and Kustendjian strained their ears to hear 
what was going on within. Suddenly there came a sound as 
of the ringing of metal on a marble floor, and Dick sprang 
to the doorway with a bound, followed by the rest, and tore 
aside the curtain. He never quite knew what he had ex- 
pected to see, but it was certainly not the sight which met 
his eyes. The King was sitting on his raised divan, with 
Fath-ud-Din standing beside him. Before them there lay 
on a gorgeous Persian carpet a great pile of bags of money, 
one of which had been kicked across the room. It had 
burst open, and the clash of the escaping silver was the 
sound which the listeners had heard. They had no time to 
meditate further on the situation, for Sir Dugald, his face 
white with anger, was coming towards them, actually turn- 
ing his back on the King, and as he reached the doorway 
he looked round over his shoulder and spoke. 

“Your Majesty understands that under no circumstances 
will I consent to enter the Palace again. Any communica- 
tion you may wish to make to me can pass through my 
secretary.” 

“ But which is he ? ” inquired Fath-ud-Din smoothly in 
Arabic, the language in which Sir Dugald had spoken. “ Is 
he the mighty man of whose deeds the hillmen sing, and 
with whose name the women of Khemistan terrify their 
children ” 

Sir Dugald silently indicated Stratford, and the Vizier 
looked at him and grunted softly to himself. But the 


144 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


King sat up suddenly (he had been leaning forward with his 
chin on his hand, listening to what passed), and said — 

“Ye cannot leave this place without camels, and camels 
ye shall not have until the treaty is signed.” 

“ Ko ; hut we can wait here until a British force comes 
to escort us away,” said Sir Dugald, and marched down the 
hall. His staff followed him, not without an uneasy feeling 
that they might he attacked from behind. Indeed, Kus- 
tendjian confessed afterwards that he had never felt quite 
so much frightened in his life as when Fitz gave him a poke 
in the ribs. 

“What was it that they really did, sir?” asked Dick, 
when they were riding back to the Mission. 

“They tried bribery and corruption, Horth — offered me 
the heap of money you saw on the floor if I would sign that 
precious treaty of theirs and make no bones about it. I 
have had experiences, of the kind before, in out-of-the-way 
places, where the people knew little of British rule, but this 
is quite the biggest thing of its sort that has ever been tried 
with me. I don’t fancy they will attempt it again.” 

“Was it the treaty you tore up yesterday ? ” 

“ Exactly the same. I knew it this time without Kus- 
tendjian’s help. Well, this is the last occasion on which 
we shall be tricked into going to the Palace on such an 
errand.” 

But it was evident the next morning that the Ethiopian 
authorities had not given up hope, for a second deputation 
appeared, headed by an official even higher in rank than the 
preceding one, and entreated Sir Dugald to return to the 
Palace once again. This time the King had tried his 
loyalty, which had stood the test ; and now, finding that he 
could neither be deceived nor corrupted, he would send 
with him an autograph letter to her Majesty, advising her 
to promote the Envoy above all her servants, since neither 


CAUGHT AND CAGED. 


145 


threats nor bribes nor any devices could move him. Sir 
Dugald smiled grimly when be beard the message, which 
was brought him by Stratford, who had interviewed the 
embassy. 

“Praise from such a quarter is praise indeed,” he re- 
marked ; “ but you may tell them, Mr Stratford, that this 
fish will not bite.” 

Again the deputation sent in earnest entreaties for merely 
a sight of Sir Dugald’s face, declaring that they dared not 
return to the King without having seen him, and on being 
dismissed they came hack twice over, each time becoming 
more urgent in their request. Let Sir Dugald only come to 
the Palace once more, and sign the treaty in the King’s 
presence, and all would he well But Sir Dugald was not 
to he moved. The utmost concession that he would make 
in answer to the prayers of the messengers was to consent 
to sign the original treaty if it were brought to him at the 
Mission already hearing the seals of the King and Fath-ud- 
Din, or else to allow Stratford to take to the Palace the 
copy made by Kustendjian and obtain the required signatures 
to it, after which Sir Dugald would affix his. Further than 
this he would not go, and the deputation retired disap- 
pointed once more. 

Ko deputation appeared the next day, but the members 
of the Mission were not allowed to imagine themselves for- 
gotten. Before the hour at which the gate was usually 
opened in the morning, a strong guard of soldiers took post 
before it, and signified that they would permit no one either 
to enter or leave the premises. Under these circumstances 
Sir Dugald, while intrusting to the officer in command of 
the troops a formal protest to be delivered to the King, 
considered it advisable to keep the gate shut, although the 
soldiers showed no disposition to attempt to force an en- 
trance. The object of their presence, which appeared at 


146 


PEACE WITH HONOUE. 


first as a somewhat purposeless insult, was soon discovered, 
for when the country-people came as usual with their baskets 
of eggs and vegetables for sale, intending to set up their 
market in the street, as they had done since the day of the 
riot, they were turned hack and not allowed to approach the 
gate. In the same way the cooks, who made an attempt to 
get out as far as the town market to do their catering, were 
refused leave to pass, and returned disconsolately into the 
courtyard. It was evident that an endeavour was to he 
made to starve the Mission into surrender, and Sir Dugald 
ordered an examination of the stores to he instituted. The 
result was not reassuring. It had never been intended that 
the expedition should carry all its supplies with it, and 
therefore, although there was still a considerable quantity of 
tinned provisions and other articles of luxury, there was a 
great deficiency of corn and flour, and of course an absolute 
lack of fresh meat and vegetables. It was obviously neces- 
sary to put the whole party upon fixed rations at once, but 
this measure would be of little avail if the blockade outside 
were strictly kept up. 

With night, however, a gleam of comfort arrived in the 
shape of Jahan Beg, who was discovered by Bitz lurking in 
the lane behind the house, and was drawn up to the window 
by a rope. He had heard of the King’s last measure of 
offence, and was anxious to know how it affected his friends. 
Sir Dugald’s refusal to go to the Palace he approved heartily, 
saying that any yielding now would be accepted as a sign of 
fear and weakness, leaving out of sight the extreme proba- 
bility that the opportunity would be seized of making an 
attempt on his life. At the same time, the Amir confessed 
that he saw no way out of the situation which would com- 
bine honour and safety. Fath-ud-Din was paramount in 
the council, and while he was in power no one else could 
get a hearing. Eustam Khan was in fear of his life, and 


CAUGHT AND CAGED. 


147 


had everything ready for flight at a moment’s notice should 
his spies inform him that it was expedient. The Scythian 
envoy was once more to the front, although no definite 
arrangement had as yet been concluded with him. It 
seemed to be Fath-ud-Din’s policy to play off one nation 
against the other, doing his best to secure concessions from 
each, while giving as little as possible in the way of equiv- 
alent to either. 

“ If you can get any treaty that in the slightest degree 
approaches your demands, sign it and go,” said Jahan Beg. 
“ And if you can’t get your treaty, go in any case, if you 
can.” 

“ I was thinking of sending a man off to Fort Eahmat- 
UUah to describe our plight, and ask for orders and help,” 
said Sir Dugald; ‘‘but the difficulty is that they will allow 
no one to pass. One does not care to court a rebuff by 
demanding facilities for the passage of a courier taking im- 
portant despatches to Khemistan and finding them refused ; 
and even if we could smuggle him out behind in any way, 
there would be a very slender chance of his passing the city 
gates, much less of reaching the frontier.” 

“ I will do what I can to help a messenger off if you are 
obliged to run the blockade,” said Jahan Beg; “ but as you 
say, there is a very slight chance of success. Why not send 
a message by that fellow Hicks, who has been talking for 
weeks of returning to Khemistan immediately % ” 

“ Because he only meant to return when our business was 
over, and now that things have become more exciting he is 
bound to be in at the death,” said Sir Dugald. “ He must 
wait here and write our obituary notices, you see.” 

“ Well, I advise you to wait a day or two, in case any- 
thing occurs to alter the situation. The Scythian agent 
may turn rusty if it dawns upon him that he is being 
played with, and then your chance will come.” 


148 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ The worst of it is that our chances are limited by our 
supplies,” said Sir Dugald. “We have not got the beasts 
and the camel-men to consider now, certainly, but it is no 
joke providing simply for ourselves and the servants here. 
Both Fath-ud-Din and the Scythian envoy have the whip- 
hand of us in that respect.” 

“ Yes,” put in Georgia, for the conversation was taking 
place on the terrace, “it would not do us much good 
personally even to get the treaty signed, when we were 
reduced to a ration of three tinned peas and a square 
inch of chocolate each a day.” 

“Don’t be afraid, Miss Keeling,” said Stratford. “I 
think I can assure you that we men will each add one pea 
and an appreciable fraction of the chocolate to your ration 
and Lady Haigh’s.” 

“And we shall hand it back to you, remarking gracefully 
that you need it more than we do,” said Georgia. 

“ By the bye,” said Jahan Beg, “ I think I can help you 
about provisions a little. I can get a small supply of com 
through the lanes at the back without attracting the notice 
of the soldiers, and you can draw up the sacks through the 
window. I will bring you a donkey-load to-morrow night, 
and another the next night, if all is well.” 

In spite of the watch kept on the house, Jahan Beg was 
as good as his word, and succeeded in supplying the be- 
leaguered garrison, in the course of the next three nights, 
with enough corn to relieve them from any present fear 
of starvation. In other respects, however, the situation 
showed no improvement. Once more a deputation from 
the Palace arrived to propose terms of peace, and departed 
as before without seeing Sir Dugald. But this time the 
official who headed it declared as he departed that no 
more messages of conciliation would be sent by the King. 
After this, if the British Mission desired to abandon its 


CAUGHT AND CAGED. 


149 


attitude of suspicion, and meet the Ethiopian Government 
on a footing of mutual confidence, it must make the first 
move. The soldiers at the gateway had been ordered to 
allow Sir Dugald to pass at any hour of the day or night, 
either with or without his staff, and to escort him to the 
Palace with due honour. But no advantage was taken of 
this intimation, and inside the Mission councils were held 
daily as to the measures to he adopted in case the state of 
affairs should remain unchanged. Sir Dugald had decided 
to send a messenger to Fort Eahmat-Ullah asking for 
instructions, and Jahan Beg had chosen one of his servants, 
a man who was devoted to him and who knew the country 
well, for the dangerous errand. As soon as arrangements 
had been made for a supply of horses along the route to he 
traversed, this man was to come to the Mission to receive 
Sir Dugald’s despatches, which were to he sewn up in his 
clothes, and the imprisoned residents began to regard the 
state of affairs with somewhat greater equanimity, since the 
burden of decision in the dilemma in which they found them- 
selves would be laid upon other shoulders than their own. 

On the fourth day of the blockade, however, an unex- 
pected change occurred. Again an embassy appeared, but 
this time it was a private one. It consisted of the two sons 
of Eath-ud-Din, who had brought Mr Hicks to introduce 
them and to guarantee their good faith, and a number of 
attendants, who bore gifts of fruit and vegetables. The 
object of their errand was soon imparted. Eath-ud-Din 
had been seized with a mysterious illness, the nature of 
which was unknown to the Ethiopian physicians and 
baffled all their remedies, and he had sent to entreat Dr 
Headlam, to whose skill aU his patients in the city bore 
eloquent testimony, to come and prescribe for him. Sir 
Dugald and his staff looked at one another doubtfully when 
they heard the message. 


150 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“It looks remarkably like a trap,” said Sir Dugald. 

“ Still, Hicks would scarcely lend himself to such a 
thing,” said the doctor. 

“ Let us have him in,” said Sir Dugald ; and Mr BLicks 
was invited into the Durbar-hall, leaving his young friends 
in the verandah. 

“ If you ask me, I think the old man is real sick,” he 
said, in reply to their questions. “ I heard his groans when 
I called at his house just now, and they were awful. I 
guess the old sinner is nailed this time, any way.” 

“ But it is so exactly what one might look for in a plot 
to secure one of us as a hostage for the signing of the 
treaty,” said Dick. 

“ Well, two can play at that game,” said the doctor, who 
was eager to go. “I suppose I must have young Eath-ud- 
Din with me to do the honours of the house, but do you 
keep the boy here, and don’t let him go until you have me 
safely back. That ought to checkmate any intended move 
of theirs.” 

“ Doctor, there’s something like grit in you ! ” cried Mr 
Hicks, warmly. “ What with your professional enthusiasm, 
and your level-headedness, you deserve to be immortalised. 
And your name shall be handed down in the pages of history, 
or I will cut my connection with the ‘Crier’ from that day.” 

“ Thanks,” said the doctor. “Now suppose you call in 
the young gentlemen and explain the state of affairs. I 
don’t want to get to the house and find the poor old villain 
beyond my skiU.” 

The Vizier’s eldest son understood the matter at once, 
and was perfectly willing that his young brother should 
remain at the Mission as a hostage for Dr Headlam’s safe 
return. The boy was therefore delivered over to Sir 
Dugald and taken into the inner court, and the doctor left 
the house with Mr Hicks and young Fath-ud-Din. 


CAUGHT AND CAGED. 


151 


“ Make the most of your opportunities, doctor,” Stratford 
called after him as he departed. “ Have the medicine ready, 
and refuse to give it him except as the price of the signing 
of our treaty.” 

Dr Headlam went off laughing, and the evening passed 
quietly at the Mission. About eleven o’clock the doctor 
returned, escorted by young Fath-ud-Din, who received his 
brother hack, and departed with profuse expressions of 
gratitude. 

“ What sort of time have you had with the boy % ” asked 
the doctor of Stratford and Dick, who were accompanying 
him across the court on his way to his own quarters. 

“ Oh, not bad, under the circumstances,” returned Dick. 
“We set Anstruther down to teach him halma by signs, 
and Miss Keeling gave us a little music — that is to say, 
she did her best to sing to the strains of Kustendjian’s 
concertina. I never heard any one play so vilely as that 
fellow in all my life, but the hoy seemed impressed. 
Afterwards we sat in a ring and tried to talk, with Kus- 
tendjian to interpret, and all got most fearfully sleepy. 
But how did you get onT’ 

“ Well, I don’t quite know,” replied the doctor, somewhat 
reluctantly. “ I have an uncomfortable kind of feeling, and 
yet I can’t he sure that it is justified. But I will tell you 
about the events of the evening, and then you can judge for 
yourselves whether the matter is of any importance.” 

“Oh, go on!” said Dick and Stratford together. “Don’t 
keep us on the rack.” 

“ Well, as soon as I got to the house I was taken to see 
old Fath-ud-Din. It’s pretty clear to me that he has a 
tolerably severe attack of influenza, hut he thought he was 
dying — or at any rate, he groaned as if he did. I prescribed 
the usual remedies, and gave various directions as to things 
which I thought might relieve him. He sent the servants 


152 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


out of the room to get hot flannels and the other things I 
had ordered, and then turned to me. I was pouring out 
the medicine, which I had fortunately been able to make 
up from the drugs I had brought with me, and I went to 
give it to him. As I held the glass to his lips, he fixed 
me with his eye and said in Arabic, * A doctor has many 
opportunities.’ It was such a truism that I merely agreed, 
and he went on, ‘ He holds in his hand the life of the man 
to whose help he is called.’ I thought he was afraid that I 
might he trying to poison him, and I said, ‘ If your Excel- 
lency doubts me, I wiU sip the medicine myself first.’ At 
that he grinned in what he seemed to consider as a friendly 
and ingratiating manner, and said, ‘You mistake me. I 
trust you. So also does the Queen of England’s Envoy 
trust you, and our lord the King trusts his physician.’ I 
didn’t quite see the relevance of the remark, so I cut 
matters short by requesting him to take his medicine. 
He sat up and balanced the glass in his hand, and said, 
looking at me over the edge of it : ‘ Doubtless you are 
acquainted with poisons which could he administered in 
a little draught like this, and do their work without causing 
suspicion V I didn’t at all like the turn the conversation 
was taking, but I told him shortly that I did know of such 
poisons, and he said at once, ‘There are great fortunes to be 
made by men who possess such knowledge as that, and who 
are willing to use it.’ I was partly flustered and partly 
angry, for I could not make out whether he was still 
harping on the idea of my poisoning him, or hinting at 
bribing me to murder Sir Dugald or perhaps the King, 
and I said very emphatically, ‘I don’t understand your 
Excellency, and I must ask you to remember that I have 
no wish whatever to do so.’ That was something of a 
cram, I’m afraid, but I was too much flurried to pick my 
phrases, and I gave him the medicine without another 


CAUGHT AND CAGED. 


153 


word. Then the servants came back, and I saw them 
make him comfortable, and then Hicks and I had dinner, 
or supper, or whatever you might call it, with young 
Fath-ud-Din. How, what do you think of iti” 

“It looks fishy,” said Stratford. “If you ask me, I 
think we must look after the Chief.” 

“Just so,” said Dr Headlam, “but without frightening 
the ladies. I will tell him the whole story to-morrow 
morning. They couldn’t attempt anything particular to- 
night, and it’s very late. Besides, I feel a bit seedy 
myself.” 

“ I hope they haven’t poisoned 2 /om,” said Dick, pausing 
and looking at him. 

“Honsense, my dear fellow. Why, Hicks and young 
Fath-ud-Din and I were aU eating out of the same dish. 
If you had seen some of the messes of which politeness 
forced Hicks and me to partake, you would wonder that 
we are alive now. There was one concoction full of 
chillies, which has made me most consumedly thirsty.” 

“ Come back and have something to drink,” said Dick. 
“ The servants are gone to roost, but I think we are capable 
of compounding you a peg between us.” 

“Ho, thanks; I am looking forward to a glass of my own 
effervescent mixture. My servants always have orders to 
leave the filter full for me. Well, we must be thinking of 
turning iu, I suppose.” 

“Stay over here to-night,” said Stratford, moved by a 
sudden impulse. “We can manage to put you up in 
Bachelors’ Buildings, and it will be more convenient if 
you are really seedy. Besides, it is undoubtedly bad 
policy for one of us to sleep out in an isolated house at 
a time like this.” 

“ My dear Stratford, I have a rifle and a revolver and a 
whole armoury of surgical knives with which to defend my 


154 


PEACE WITH HONOUK. 


hearth and home. Any midnight marauder who came to 
pay me a visit would find that he had undertaken a tough 
job. Moreover, my servants are good fellows, and they 
are armed after a fashion. And then I have the famous 
collection, with the reputation Anstruther has conferred 
upon it, to protect me. Good-night : I am really too 
thirsty to wait talking any longer.” 

They unbarred the gate and let him out, watched him 
cross the street and knock at his own door, and saw him 
admitted. Then, after going the round of the sentries, they 
retired to their own quarters, where they spent some time 
in conversation. Before turning in, they went out to the 
gate once more, impelled by a common anxiety for which 
they made no attempt to account to one another, and looked 
across at the doctor’s house ; but the door was shut, and all 
was quiet there. 


CHAPTEK XI. 

THE RANKS ARE THINNED. 

“ Mr Stratford ! Mr Stratford 1 ” 

The words were accompanied by an emphatic knocking 
at the door, and Stratford sat up in bed. 

“ Come in ! ” he shouted, recognising the voice, and Fitz 
Anstruther entered, shutting the door carefully behind 
him. 

“ I’m afraid there’s something wrong over at the doctor’s,” 
he said. “ His house - door is ajar, and yet none of his 
people seem to be stirring. I wanted to go over and see 
what was the matter, but old Ismail Bakhsh wouldn’t let 


THE RANKS ARE THINNED. 


155 


me pass out of the gate, and told me to call you and Major 
North. May I go nowl’ I won’t he a minute.” 

“ No, call North, and he and I will go over,” said Strat- 
ford, beginning to dress, and Fitz, with a sense of deep dis- 
appointment, obeyed. In a very few minutes Stratford and 
Dick came down the steps together, and after posting Fitz 
at the gate in case a hurried return should he necessary, 
passed between the lounging forms of the Ethiopian soldiers 
who were occupying the street, and entered the doctor’s 
house. Its air of desolation surprised them, for they found 
the courtyard and verandah strewn with hooks and papers, 
and odds and ends of small value. 

“ Looks as though the place had been looted,” said Dick. 

They crossed the verandah and entered the house, still 
without meeting a soul. Here again all was desolation. 
Everything of value seemed to be gone, and the furniture 
was broken and knocked about. The only things left un- 
injured were the glass bottles containing the natural history 
specimens, which still remained untouched on their shelves. 
The door into the next room was ajar, and a kerosene 
lamp was burning itself out on the table, filling, the air 
with its pungent odour as the flame flickered, recovered 
itself, and sank again. Glancing into the semi-darkness, 
the intruders could make out the form of the doctor, lying 
half-dressed across his bed, the lamp-light gleaming on the 
barrel of a revolver in his hand. 

Somewhat reassured by the sight, they advanced and 
pushed the door wide open, then recoiled precipitately. 
The face which met their view was that of a dead man — 
of one who had died in the extremest agony. The protrud- 
ing eyeballs, the lips drawn back to the gums, the black 
and swollen tongue, all testified to the sufferer’s having en- 
dured the utmost torments of thirst. 

Ashamed of their momentary panic, Stratford and Dick, 


156 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


putting a strong constraint upon themselves, entered the 
room and lifted the corpse, unclasping the rigid hand from 
the revolver. 

“ They did poison him, then ! ” said Dick, fiercely. 
“Well, we will have Fath-ud-Din’s blood for this.” 

“HowV’ asked Stratford. “When was he poisoned? 
Was it at dinner last night, or had his servants poisoned 
the water in the filter? If young Fath-ud-Din and Hicks 
are both unhurt, we can never prove that it wasn’t that. 
It has been very smartly managed.” 

“ Here is a piece of paper and a pencil,” said Dick, hand- 
ing them to him. “ He must have been writing as he lay.” 

“ Look here,” said Stratford, holding out the paper after 
glancing through it, “the poor fellow has put down his 
symptoms and the remedies he tried, as a guide to us. He 
wrote at intervals, evidently. You see, after recording his 
symptoms twice, he says, ‘ Servants gathered round the 
door watching me. Eefuse to bring water.’ Then more 
symptoms, and then, ‘Servants are looting the house. 
Afraid to touch collection.’ Now you see the writing be- 
comes much weaker. ‘Ask Miss Keeling to keep collection 
in memory of me. Take my mother back the Bible she 
gave me. Good-bye all. Take care of Miss Keeling ; they 
will strike at her next — the only doctor left. God have 

mercy ’ It breaks off there, you notice, with a scrawl 

right across the page. The pencil must have dropped from 
his hand. To think what the poor fellow must have been 
enduring all alone in the night, with those fiends gloating 
over him ! ” 

They stood up on either side of the dead man and looked 
at each other. Both were men who would not have flinched 
in the hottest fight, and yet each now saw reflected in the 
other’s eyes the unutterable horror of his own. What 
chance was there of success against a foe who fought 


THE RANKS ARE THINNED. 


157 


with such weapons as this? Stratford was the first to 
speak. 

“ I must go over and get the Chief to come,” he said. 
“Will you stay here with — him ? I won’t be longer than 
I can help.” 

Dick nodded, and he went off swiftly. For a few 
moments Dick sat still, staring fixedly at the distorted face 
of the man who had been a true comrade and good friend 
to him during the last few months. Then he pushed back 
the box on which he had been sitting, and began to walk 
up and down the room, averting his eyes from the dreadful 
thing on the bed. 

“ What are we to do ? ” he cried in despair. “ It’s not 
for myself — God knows it’s not for myself — but those poor 
women ! ” 

Georgia’s face rose up before him — not an uncommon 
occurrence in these days — and he ground his teeth as he 
remembered the dead man’s warning. He was powerless, 
and he knew it. What could four Englishmen, with 
Kustendjian and the little handful of native servants, 
do against a whole nation? How could they defend the 
helpless women who had come to Kubbet-ul-Haj trusting 
in their protection? 

“At any rate,” said Dick, clenching his fist involun- 
tarily, “ if they strike at her they shall strike me first ! ” 

Presently Stratford came back with Sir Dugald, to 
whom he had explained hastily the doctor’s suspicions of 
the night before. Sir Dugald’s arrival and his immediate 
grasp of the situation did something to lessen the tension 
in the minds of the two yoUIiger men, an effect which was 
enhanced by the prompt and decisive orders which he 
proceeded to give. 

“ I shall send you to the Palace with Kustendjian, Strat- 
ford, to tell the King exactly what has happened, and to 


158 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


insist that it shall be inquired into immediately. There is 
no such thing as an inquest here, of course, hut I suppose 
we had better leave the body for the present as you found 
it, in case they send some one to see how things were.” 

“But what about punishing the murderers, sir?” asked 
Dick, eagerly. 

“ Who are the murderers % ” responded Sir Dugald. 

“ What is your opinion, sir ? ” 

“ My opinion is the same as yours and Stratford’s — that 
poor Headlam was poisoned at Fath-ud-Din’s dinner ; but 
you must see for yourself that it is absolutely impossible 
for us to prove it. Fath-ud-Din will say that the servants 
murdered their master in order to steal his property. 
Why otherwise should they have looted the place and 
decamped 1 ” 

“Because they were afraid of being suspected,” sug- 
gested Dick. 

“ Possibly ; although in that case it was an insane idea 
for them to meddle with the poor fellow’s things. Besides, 
three of them came with us from Khemistan, and were not 
like these Ethiopians here. They were British subjects, 
and would have known that we should protect them and 
give them a fair trial. No ; my opinion is that the 
servants had been got at, and were in league with Fath- 
ud-Din. He was to administer the poison, and they were 
to loot the house and disappear, in order that suspicion 
might rest upon them. No doubt he guaranteed their 
escape, and provided a safe refuge for them. But, if this 
is the case, you see we are powerless. Nothing but a 
direct confession from one of those immediately concerned 
could enable us to bring the crime home.” 

“ Then you will not even charge Fath-ud-Din with it 1 ” 

“My dear North” — Sir Dugald laid his hand not un- 
kindly on Dick’s shoulder — “pull yourself together, and 


THE RANKS ARE THINNED. 


159 


consider what our position here is. Don’t let your eager- 
ness to avenge poor Headlam blind you to the fact that 
we are in an enemy’s country, with several women to 
protect, and four guns (I don’t count Kustendjian) to do it 
with. At present Fath-ud-Din is bound to work against 
us secretly, hut if we brought such an accusation against 
him it would be open war. The King could not give him 
up for punishment if he would, and it would be far easier, 
in any case, to get rid of us than of him. You may 
put me down as cold-blooded and calculating — in fact, 
I know you do — but it is my duty to try to bring the 
Mission out of this most unfortunate business with as little 
loss of life as possible.” 

“ I quite see that, sir ; but when I look at the poor chap 
lying there ” 

“You must not look at the dead, Korth, but at the 
living. If lit should so happen that I were to die as 
the doctor has died, my last care would be to give Strat- 
ford a solemn charge to get the rest of you safely out 
of the country before he hinted at suspicion or said a word 
aboufr avenging me. I don’t deny that we ought never 
to have brought the ladies here, but, hampered as we 
are by their presence, we have given hostages to fortune. 
Heaven helping me, I mean to have that treaty signed yet, 
before we leave Kubbet-ul-Haj ; but, if that is not to 
be, then I shall turn all my thoughts to getting the ladies 
across the frontier in safety. I hope I may feel assured 
that my staff will do all in their power to co-operate with 
me, and to take my place should I be removed.” 

“ You may count on me. Sir Dugald,” said Dick, slowly. 
“ I hope you will forgive what I said just now. I was so 
much upset that I did not consider things properly.” 

Before Sir Dugald could answer, Stratford, who had 
gone back to the Mission to prepare for his visit to the 


160 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Palace, returned with Kustendjian, and received his orders. 
He was on no account to enter the Palace, merely to stand 
without and demand justice ; and he was to be satisfied 
with nothing less than a royal proclamation denouncing 
the murderers, and ordering an immediate search for the 
fugitive servants. Little success as could be hoped for 
from this measure, such an edict would at least vindicate 
the prestige of the Mission. 

“ Now,” said Sir Dugald to Dick when Stratford and the 
interpreter had taken their departure, “we will get two or 
three of the servants over here, and set them to work 
to knock together a coffin. We must make it out of some 
of these packing-cases, I suppose. It will only be a rough 
affair. And then we must see about a burial-ground and a 
grave. It is sad to leave behind one you have liked and 
trusted in a country like this ! ” 

Sir Dugald’s iron face twitched as he spoke, and he 
stooped over the corpse. 

“ Can you find a pair of scissors, North % I must cut off 
a lock of his hair for Lady Haigh to take to his mother, for 
I will not allow either her or Miss Keeling to come over 
and see him like this. I must break the news to them 
presently, but they shall know as little of the truth as I 
can manage to tell them.” 

Dick found a pair of scissors in the dead man’s medicine- 
chest, .md Sir Dugald cut off a lock of hair and placed 
it carefully in his pocket-book. Then he went across to 
the Mission, returning in a short time with two servants, 
whom he set to work at their mournful task, and leaving 
Dick to superintend them, went back to break the news to 
his wife and Georgia. Presently he was summoned again 
to the doctor’s house to meet the official who had returned 
with Stratford from the Palace, and who bore assurances of 
the grief and wrath felt by the King on account of the 


THE RANKS ARE THINNED. 


161 


crime which had been committed. Stratford brought word 
that the monarch’s utterances seemed to be really sincere, 
and that it was probable that even if the murder was justly 
attributed to Fath-ud-Din, his master had no share in it. 
He had come to the door of the Palace to meet Stratford, 
finding that he would not enter, and to all appearance was 
struck with surprise and horror at his news. The thought 
that the Queen of England might suspect that he had 
plotted the murder of her ojfficer seemed to impress him 
particularly, and he was ready to order every possible step 
to be taken that could lead to the detection of the criminals. 
At the same time, he was persistent in fastening the guilt 
upon the runaway servants, and refused to listen to the 
hint thrown out by Stratford that they might have been 
instigated to their deed by some one higher in position ; and 
neither Sir Dugald nor his subordinates could resist the 
conclusion, that although it was in all probability true that 
the King knew nothing of the crime before it had taken 
place, yet he had now no difficulty in assigning it to its 
true perpetrator, whom he was, moreover, determined to 
shield. 

Short of allowing any real inquiry into the manner of the 
doctor’s death, however, the King was ready to do all he 
could in the painful circumstances. The desired proclama- 
tion was already being published in the different quarters of 
the town, and a price had been set on the heads of the 
servants. With regard to the funeral, as there was no 
Christian burial-ground anywhere in Ethiopia, Sir Dugald 
might choose a spot in the royal gardens outside the city, 
and that spot should be fenced off and held sacred. 
Deputations from the Ethiopian army and council should 
be present at the ceremony, and Eustam Khan should also 
attend it as his father’s representative. In the meantime, 
to show the King’s deep regret for the misunderstanding 


162 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


which had existed during the last few days between himself 
and Sir Dugald, the guard of soldiers would he removed 
from the front of the Mission, and the country-people 
informed that they might bring their produce to sell as 
usual. 

It was Stratford and Fitz to whom fell the task of riding 
out to the King’s garden and selecting the site gf the first 
Christian cemetery in Ethiopia. They chose a spot on the 
border of the estate, which could he easily marked off from 
the rest, and the official who had accompanied them gave 
the necessary orders to the workmen. The funeral was to 
take place in the late afternoon, and there was need for 
haste. Fitz and Stratford had ridden out almost in silence ; 
but as they mounted their horses for the return journey 
to Kubbet-ul-Haj, Fitz looked back at the garden and 
shuddered. 

“I wonder how many of us will lie there before this 
business is over ! ” he said, only to be annihilated by 
Stratford’s reply — 

“Shut up, you young fool, and don’t croak. Your 
business is to obey orders, and not to wonder.” 

The boy relapsed into sulky silence at once, and brooded 
all the way home over the disgusting state of Stratford’s 
temper, never guessing that it was with this very end in 
view, of detaching his thoughts from the tragedy of the 
morning, that the rebuke had been administered to him. 
In the courtyard of the Mission they found Dick engaged 
in superintending the preparations for the funeral, and 
Stratford noticed at once that among the riding-horses, 
which were those presented by the King a few days before, 
there were two hired mules carrying a curtained litter. 

“ Surely the ladies are not going 1 ” he said to Dick. 

“ They are, indeed. Lady Haigh declared that she could 
never face the doctor’s mother if she was unable to tell her 


THE RANKS ARE THINNED. 


163 


in what kind of place he was buried, and what the funeral 
was like, and it struck the Chief that it was just possible 
they might be safer with us than left behind here under 
Kustendjian’s charge. Our force is none too large now, 
you know.” 

And thus it happened that Lady Haigh and Georgia 
formed part of the mournful procession that accompanied 
the doctor’s rude coffin to its resting-place in the King’s 
garden. The streets and house-tops were crowded with 
people, who gazed eagerly and in silence at the British flag 
which covered the remains, and at the little group of 
Englishmen, sad-faced and stern, who followed. Many of 
those in the crowd owed relief from disease, or even life 
itself, to Dr Headlam’s skill, yet no sign of grief was 
exhibited by any one. But neither was there any attempt 
at mockery or sign of unfriendliness ; the people seemed to 
watch the proceedings with intense and absorbing curiosity, 
much, thought Georgia, as the inhabitants of Mexico might 
have contemplated a religious ceremony performed by 
Cortes and his Spaniards. The same interest was shown 
at the cemetery, where another crowd had assembled, that 
listened expectantly to the unfamiliar accents as Sir Dugald 
read the Burial Service, and pressed forward eagerly to see 
what was happening when Lady Haigh and Georgia came 
to the grave-side and threw their flowers upon the coffin. 
The party from the Mission remained beside the grave 
until it was filled up and a rough wooden tablet erected, 
bearing the doctor’s name and the date of his death, and 
then returned sadly home, parting from Eustam Khan and 
his attendants as soon as they reached the city gate. 

How that the last honours had been paid to the dead, it 
was time, as Sir Dugald had said to Dick, to think of the 
living, and the four Englishmen and Kustendjian met on 
the terrace to discuss the state of afiairs. The latest cause 


164 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


for anxiety arose from the fact that Rustam Khan had 
shown a strong disposition to emphasise the truth that he at- 
tended the funeral merely as the representative of his father. 
He had declined to ride side by side with Sir Dugald after 
the coffin, and had displayed a determination, which under 
less painful circumstances would have been almost ludic- 
rous, to avoid direct communication with any of the 
party. 

“ The moral of which is,” said Sir Dugald, “ that we are 
by no means out of the wood yet, but rather deeper in it 
than before, if possible. If Rustam Khan is afraid to be 
seen speaking to us, or even to show the friendly feeling the 
occasion might seem to demand, it looks to my mind as 
though he knew that he had been accused to his father of 
plotting with us to deprive him of the throne, and wished 
to assert his innocence.” 

“ It strikes one that such a very pointed change of man- 
ner would be calculated to awaken suspicion rather than to 
lull it,” said Stratford — ‘‘though, of course, Rustam Khan 
must be the best judge of that. But we are singularly des- 
titute of information to-day. Even Hicks would be better 
than no one.” 

“ Mr Hicks came here after you had started,” said Kus- 
tendjian, who had been left in charge of the Mission during 
the funeral. “ He would have wished to attend the 
ceremony at the grave, but he had only just heard what 
had happened, since all the morning he was suffering from 
a fit of indigestion, induced by the dishes at the Vizier’s 
dinner last night.” 

“Well, it’s evident that he was not poisoned,” said Dick, 
“for Fath-ud-Din would have done his work more effectually, 
for one thing ; and again, I know that I have invariably had 
the same experience myself after a big native dinner in 
India or Khemistan. But he seems to be no better pro- 


THE RANKS ARE THINNED. 


165 


vided with news than we are. I wonder what has become 
of Jahan Beg.” 

“ That is just the question that has occurred to me,” said 
Sir Dugald. “ It is possible that his house is watched, and 
that he does not dare to come here. But I hope his silence 
may mean merely that he has found a good opportunity for 
sending off his messenger, and that he did not wait for 
despatches or further directions from me, but packed him 
off at once.” 

“ But supposing you hear, in the course of the next two 
or three weeks, that the force you want is awaiting your 
orders at Fort Eahmut-Ullah, what action do you propose 
to take, sir?” asked Dick. 

“ Simply to inform the King that I am about to with- 
draw the Mission. If he will send troops to escort us to 
the frontier, as he did when we came, it will be aU right ; 
but, if not, I shall order a sufficient force to march to our 
assistance. It would not be a military expedition, of course 
— merely a baggage-train with an armed escort — but the 
King could not refuse it passage without open war. That 
would necessitate his throwing himself into the arms of 
Scythia, which he is very shy of doing ; and it is my impres- 
sion that when he discovers we have the help we need at no 
great distance, he will change his mind, sign the treaty, and 
allow us to take back to Khemistan peace with honour.” 

“But he would naturally begin a war, if he did decide 
upon one, by wiping out the Mission,” suggested Dick, “ or 
he might provide us with an escort which had instructions 
to murder us all on the way. It would come to pretty 
much the same thing in either case, so far as we were 
concerned.” 

“ Kisks of that kind one must take in the course of 
business,” said Sir Dugald. “We can’t very well remain 
permanently at Kubbet-ul-Haj on our present footing, but 


166 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


we will do our best to avoid playing the part of victims in 
another Kurd-Cahul disaster.” 

“ Do you think they will make any further attempts to 
induce us to accept their treaty, Sir Dugald 'i ” asked 
Stratford. 

“ I think it is fairly certain that they will, believing that 
we have been thrown off our guard by their friendliness 
to-day. As soon as Fath-ud-Din is about again, we shall 
probably have him here, trying his old tricks once more ; 
but I have a pleasant little surprise in store for him. I 
shall make it clear that all negotiations are to be carried on 
at this house, and that neither I nor any of you will go to 
the Palace on any business whatever connected with the 
treaty. I am not going to risk the loss of any more lives 
by dividing our force, but I shall not tell him that. It will 
be a disagreeable shock to him to find that we only become 
stiffer in our demands as our position grows more precarious, 
and he will think we possess some sort of moral sup- 
port behind the scenes of which he is ignorant.” 

“ What a fire-eater the Chief is ! ” said Stratford later to 
Dick. “He ought to have commanded one of Nelson’s 
line-of-battle ships, and engaged a whole French fleet before 
he went down with guns double-shotted and colours flying.” 

“ A regular old fighting-cock ! ” said Dick, affectionately. 
“ If we hadn’t had the ladies with us, we should have seen 
him bearding the King in the Palace itself, and defying 
Fath-ud-Din and the whole Ethiopian army to their faces, 
I’m convinced. As it is — well, our prospects don’t look 
particularly brilliant just now, but I feel that if there is a 
man on earth who can get us out of this fix, it’s the Chief.” 

They were superintending the removal of the collection 
from Dr Headlam’s desolate house to the Mission, and 
gathering together such poor scraps of personal property as 
the marauders had overlooked or left behind as worthless, 


THE RANKS ARE THINNED. 


167 


to take home to his mother. When the place was cleared 
they locked the door and delivered the key to the landlord, 
who received it with a gloomy face, remarking that he never 
expected to be able to find another tenant. Dick thought 
that he was attempting to gain an increase of the substantial 
rent (as things go in Ethiopia), which had already been paid 
him, but the landlord had gauged correctly the character of 
his fellow-citizens. The house stood empty for a long time, 
gaining a bad reputation without any tangible reason ; but 
at last, for an ample remuneration, a man was found bold 
enough to sleep there, in order to prove that there was 
nothing wrong about the place. But that bold man let 
himself down over the wall into the street in the middle of 
the night by means of his turban, leaving his mattress be- 
hind him ; and the next day he told his friends that he had 
been awakened by hearing the weU-known clink of a medi- 
cine-bottle against the measuring-glass, and, cautiously un- 
covering his head, had looked out to see the ghost of the 
English doctor standing at a phantom table and mixing 
immaterial drugs. That was enough, and the house was 
left desolate until it ultimately fell into decay. 

But this is anticipating, and we must return to the days 
when the presence of a British envoy was an abiding reality 
in Kubbet-ul-Haj, and not the shadowy tradition which it 
has since become. For a day or two the party at the 
Mission were left undisturbed, although the absence of any 
message from Jahan Beg robbed their tranquillity of some 
of its attractiveness. The enforced seclusion within the 
walls of the house could not fail to tell on the spirits of 
most of them; but it was a point of honour with all to 
maintain an appearance of cheerfulness for the sake of the 
rest, and those who possessed hobbies found them a great 
help in this endeavour. Stratford studied Ethiopian, Dick 
laboured at the map of the country which he had begun 


168 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


during the journey from the frontier to the city, and Fitz, 
who was the unresisting victim of a camera which accom- 
panied him wherever he went, photographed everything and 
everybody. Georgia had an object of interest peculiarly 
her own in the perplexing conduct of Dick, who had 
changed his place at meals, and contrived always to secure 
a seat between Lady Haigh and herself, so that he could 
appropriate the first cup of tea or coffee poured out, which 
it was naturally his duty to pass on to Miss Keeling. 
Georgia pondered over this behaviour of his for some little 
time without gaining any light upon it, and at last opened 
her mind to her usual confidante. 

“ Lady Haigh, have you noticed the queer way in which 
Major Korth behaves at meals ? He won’t pass things, and 
I am sure it isn’t through absence of mind, for he apologises 
at the time, and looks so dreadfully confused.” 

“Well, my dear child, I am sure there is nothing in all 
this for which to blame him. Certainly you ought to be 
the very last person to complain.” 

“I, Lady Haigh 1” 

“Is it possible that you don’t guess his reason, Georgiel” 

“ Eeally and truly I haven’t an idea what it can be.” 

“Then I think you ought to be enlightened. You re- 
member that paper which the poor doctor left, in which he 
warned us that you would probably be the next of us to be 
attacked ? Well, Major Korth doesn’t mean you to be 
poisoned if he can prevent it. That’s all, and it explains 
his eccentric behaviour fully.” 

“ Oh ! ” Georgia sat silent, a vivid crimson spreading 
over her face. “ But it isn’t fair that he should be allowed 
to risk his life in that way, Lady Haigh,” she said at last. 

“Very well, my dear; tell him so.” 

“ But that would sound so ungrateful. Couldn’t you tell 
him?” 


THE STANDARD-BEARER FALLS. 


169 


“ I could say that you would prefer to be poisoned rather 
than to be helped after him, certainly.” 

“Oh, Lady Haigh, you are unkind; you know it isn’t 
that ! It is that I can’t hear him to he always running the 
risk of being poisoned instead of me.” 

“ Well, if you want my opinion, I should say that was a 
matter for Major Horth to decide for himself.” 

“Excuse me — I think it is a thing for me to decide.” 

“ My dear Georgie, you are very persistent. I can only 
repeat — settle it yourself with Major North.” 

But as Lady Haigh had foreseen, Georgia decided that it 
was not advisable to broach the subject to Dick, and the 
matter was therefore left untouched. 


CHAPTEE XIL 

THE STANDARD-BEARER PALLS. 

Sir Dugald’s prophecy as to the probable resumption of 
negotiations on the part of the Ethiopians proved correct, 
for within a week after the doctor’s death Eath-ud-Din, now 
completely recovered from his iUness, appeared once more 
at the Mission. As the visit was ostensibly one of con- 
dolence, Sir Dugald granted him an interview ; but when 
the Vizier had spent the orthodox length of time in bemoan- 
ing the loss of Dr Headlam, and in remarking piously, for 
the consolation of his host, that these things were ordered 
by fate and could not be averted, he turned suddenly to 
business. Taking from the hands of his confidential scribe, 
who alone of all his attendants had accompanied him into 


170 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


the Durbar-hall, a roll of parchment which bore a family 
likeness to the various abortive treaties already discussed 
and rejected, he presented it to Sir Dugald and requested 
him to read it. Sir Dugald had now become so much 
accustomed to mental exercises of the kind that he could 
detect an unsound clause by eye or by instinct rather than 
by actual perception ; but for the sake of appearances he 
beckoned to Kustendjian to come and read the document 
through to him quickly. When the reading was finished 
Kustendjian was pale with excitement, and Stratford and 
Dick were looking at one another in bewilderment over Sir 
Dugald’s head, for, with the exception of one or two minute 
alterations affecting the wording rather than the matter, the 
treaty was identical with that first agreed to, and ever since 
rejected by the King and Fath-ud-Din. That estimable 
person now sat smiling benevolently at the astonished faces 
of his hosts, and, while their eyes were still fixed upon him, 
began to make significant passes of the thumb of his right 
hand over the forefinger — a gesture which was immediately 
understood by all the members of the party except Fitz, 
for whom this journey was his first experience of Eastern 
life. 

So that’s it ! ” muttered Sir Dugald. ‘‘ How much do 
you want, Fath-ud-Din 1 ” 

With a pained smile, directed towards the scribe, who was 
obviously watching the transaction while pretending to be 
absorbed in the study of the tiled floor, the Vizier held up 
his right hand, with the second finger turned down. 

“ Oh, nonsense ! ” said Sir Dugald. “ You can’t afford 
to do it for that, you know. Or is there any other little 
thing we could do for you besides 1 Out with it ; we are 
all friends here.” 

‘‘The life of man is uncertain,” sighed Fath-ud-Din. 

“ Quite so — especially in Ethiopia,” responded Sir Dugald. 


THE STANDARD-BEAKER FALLS. 


171 


“ Even kings cannot rule for ever,” went on the Yizier. 

“ I quite agree with you ; ” yet Sir Dugald became por- 
tentously stern all at once. 

‘‘And happy is he to whom a son is given that may sit 
on his throne after him.” 

“ True. His Majesty is in that fortunate position.” 

“ But the son granted to him is young and tender, and 
there are those who might dispute his claim. How great, 
then, would be his felicity if the mighty Queen whom my 
lord serves would acknowledge, by the hand of her servant, 
the child’s right of succession, and grant him her counte- 
nance and the support of her soldiers!” 

“I see. Fath-ud-Din stands to gain five thousand pounds, 
gentlemen,” said Sir Dugald, turning to his staff; “and when 
the king is removed from the scene, we are to acknowledge 
Antar Khan as his successor, and hack him up with moral 
and physical force. How does that strike you 1 ” 

“ It strikes me that the King had better set about making 
his will,” said Stratford, grimly, “ if you accept the terms.” 

“ That is exactly the impression which the proposal has 
produced on me,” returned Sir Dugald ; “and, as I have no 
wish to be accessory to a sudden change of ruler in Ethiopia, 
I think it will be as well to inform Fath-ud-Din that we 
must decline to do business with him on this footing.” 

He folded up the treaty, rising at the same time to show 
that the interview was ended, and handed back the parch- 
ment to the Grand Yizier, who had been observing him in 
silence. 

“Her Majesty’s Government has an objection to interfer- 
ing in dynastic questions,” said Sir Dugald, pointedly; “and, 
when it does interest itseK in such a matter, it prefers to 
adopt the cause of the elder son.” 

“ There are other governments of Europe,” said Fath-ud- 
Din, with equal meaning, “ which are quite willing to take 


172 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


the side of the younger. If the first purchaser will not pay 
me the price I ask for my sheep, I will take them further 
and find one who will.” 

“ I can only admire your Excellency’s keen business quali- 
ties,” returned Sir Dugald, as he escorted his visitor to the 
door. But no sooner was the Vizier’s train outside the gate 
than the scribe came hack in haste, saying that his master 
had missed a valuable ring, which he must have dropped 
somewhere in the house. Half suspecting a trap, but yet 
determined to give no ground for an accusation of luke- 
warmness, Sir Dugald had the courtyard searched, and the 
rugs in the Dunhar-hall taken up and shaken. But all was 
in vain until one of the servants, who had removed the 
tray of coffee which had been brought in out of compliment 
to the Vizier, came back into the room, and, with a salaam, 
produced the ring, which he had found at the bottom of Sir 
Dugald’s cup, and which the scribe seized upon immediately 
with a cry of triumph. 

“ Well, I’m glad that turned out all right,” said Dick, 
when the man had gone off rejoicing. “ I was afraid it was 
a trap, and that they meant to accuse us of stealing the 
thing. Dim memories began to come over me of a book 
I read when I was a small boy, in which a virtuous family 
were imprisoned and tortured and given a had time gener- 
ally on account of a false accusation of having stolen a ring, 
and I must own that I had unpleasant forebodings as to the 
probable course of justice in Ethiopia.” 

“ I confess that I began to suspect they had hidden it 
somewhere,” said Sir Dugald, and would try to make out 
that we had accepted it as a bribe.” 

“Of course it must have dropped in when he handed 
you the treaty,” said Stratford ; “ but it’s queer that no one 
noticed it.” 

“ One of the ‘ things no feller can understand,’ ” quoted 


THE STANDARD-BEARER FALLS. 


173 


Sir Dugald, absently. “ If you will find your way to the 
terrace, gentlemen, where I see Lady Haigh is just pouring 
out tea, I will follow you as soon as I have given an order 
to Ismail Bakhsh.” 

Stratford, Dick, and Kustendjian crossed the court slowly, 
still discussing the incident of the ring, and, mounting the 
steps, perceived that Fitz had reached the terrace before 
them, and was engaged in conducting the education of the 
Persian kitten. He had an idea that it was possible, by 
dint of kindness and perseverance, to teach any animal to 
perform an unlimited number of tricks ; but so far his theory 
did not appear to be justified by facts in the case of Colleen 
Bawn. At this moment he was holding a stick a few inches 
from the ground, and endeavouring, by means of bribes and 
encouragement, to induce his pupil to jump over it. Lady 
Haigh and Georgia were laughing at his efforts, and the 
kitten sat watching him with unconcerned interest, blink- 
ing lazily every now and then with one contemptuous blue 
eye and one uncomprehending yellow one. 

“ How, you little beggar, this won’t do ! I shall have to 
take you in hand seriously. I won’t hurt the little beast, 
Miss Keeling. You don’t imagine I would? But I must 
teach it to obey orders.” 

He seized the white mass of fluff which ignored his 
blandishments so calmly, and proceeded to place it in the 
required position. The result was a short scuffle, from 
which the kitten retired in high dudgeon to seek refuge 
under Georgia’s chair, leaving Pitz defeated, with a long 
scratch on the back of his hand. 

“ Oh, Mr Anstruther, you have hurt her ! ” cried Georgia, 
reproachfully. 

“ I think she has hurt me,” was Fitz’s resentful answer. 

“Poor little thing ! I think she is only frightened,” said 
Lady Haigh. “We will give her some milk” — and she 


174 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


filled a saucer, and, stooping down, tried to tempt Colleen 
Bawn out of her hiding-place. 

It was at this moment that the rest, standing at the edge 
of the terrace, saw Sir Dugald coming through the archway 
from Bachelors’ Buildings. 

“ What in the world is the matter with the Chief ? ” 
whispered Stratford, quickly; for Sir Dugald was walking 
as though his feet refused to carry him in a straight line : 
first a few steps to the right, then a valiant attempt to reach 
the steps, then a divergence to the left. The men on the 
terrace watched him in amazement and horror. 

“ He walks as though he was drunk ! ” said Kustendjian, 
in a voice of bewilderment. 

“ I wish to goodness he might be ! ” was the astonishing 
aspiration which broke from Dick as he ran down into the 
court, while Stratford turned a look upon the interpreter 
which made him shake in his shoes. 

“ Give me your arm up the steps, North,” said Sir Dugald, 
looking at Dick in a puzzled, almost appealing fashion. “ I 
don’t feel very well. Is Anstruther there ? ” 

“Yes, sir. Do you want him to write anything!” 

“Yes. It must be done at once.” 

They had reached the top of the steps, and the horrified 
group on the terrace saw that Sir Dugald’s face was working 
strangely, and that his lips were twitching and refused to 
be controlled. 

“ Dugald,” cried his wife, rushing to him, “ you are ill ! 
Come indoors and lie down;” but he pushed her away from 
him with a shaking hand. 

“Not yet, not yet,” he said, impatiently. “Sit down, 
Anstruther, and write. Quick ! ” as the boy’s frightened 
fingers bungled over their task. “ Say this : ‘ Fearing the 
approach of severe illness, I hereby appoint Egerton Strat- 
ford to the command of this Mission until her Majesty’s 


THE STANDARD-BEARER FALLS. 


175 


pleasure is known, charging him— ’ ” here he became in- 

capable of speech for a moment, and passed his hand over 
his lips to steady them — ‘ to secure, if possible, the conclu- 
sion of the treaty originally agreed upon ; but in any case to 
conduct the Mission back to British territory without pro- 
voking, for any cause whatever, a conflict with the Ethiopian 
authorities.’ Now let me sign it.” 

He sat down heavily in the chair which Fitz vacated, and 
groaned aloud as the pen dropped from his fingers. 

“Let me guide your hand, dearest,” whispered Lady 
Haigh, restoring him the pen ; hut once more he motioned 
her aside, and, steadying his right hand with his left, suc- 
ceeded, with infinite difficulty, in inscribing his name in 
large crooked characters. 

“ Now witness it. Witness it all of you,” he said, with 
feverish anxiety, and they all added their names to the 
paper as witnesses. When the last signature was written 
Sir Dugald’s head sank on his breast, and Lady Haigh 
darted to his side with a cry which none of those who heard 
it will ever forget. 

“ Dugald, not dead ? and without a word to me ! ” 

“ Dear Lady Haigh,” said Georgia, gaining her voice first, 
and choking back her tears, “ he is not dead. I think it is 
some kind of paralytic seizure. He may recover very soon. 
If we can get him indoors I shall be able to see better what 
it is.” 

“ If you will take his left arm, Mr Stratford,” said Lady 
Haigh, in a hard, even voice, “ we can support him to his 
room. Please come with us, Georgie.” 

Dick stepped forward to offer his help, but Lady Haigh 
refused to relinquish her position, and she and Stratford 
half-carried the unconscious form across the terrace and into 
the house. It struck those who were left behind with a 
fresh pang as they realised that in the course of the past 


176 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


few weeks Sir Dugald’s iron-grey hair had turned quite 
white. 

“ What do you think 'i ” asked Dick, when Stratford re- 
turned presently and sat down in silence. 

“ Heaven help us ! ” was the sole answer ; and the group 
on the terrace waited there in speechless anxiety for more 
than an hour. The sun, as it neared its setting, began to 
cast the long shadows of the walls across the courtyard; the 
kitten curled itself into a ball of white fur in the middle of 
Georgia’s embroidery without rebuke, and still the four men 
waited, struck dumb by this sudden blow. At last Georgia 
came out and sat down in Lady Haigh’s place. There were 
traces of tears on her face, but she spoke in what Dick called 
her professional manner as they all looked at her, hesitating 
to ask the question whose answer they feared to hear. 

“ It is paralysis,” she said ; “ but I have never seen a case 
with quite the same symptoms.” 

“ All this worry has been too much for the Chief,” said 
Stratford, indignantly. “ The Government had no business 
to send so old a man on such an errand so ill-supported. 
What with all he has gone through, and the shock of the 
doctor’s death, it is no wonder that he should break down.” 

“ I don’t know who started the idea of this precious 
Mission,” growled Dick, “but if any of us get back to 
Khemistan, we shall have something to say about the way 
they carried it out.” 

“ I think that perhaps poor Sir Dugald preferred to 
come with a small party, and to be left very much to his 
own responsibility,” suggested Georgia. “He has often 
said how much he hated being trammelled by directions 
from people at a distance who knew nothing of the cir- 
cumstances. 

“Still, they should have arranged some safe means by 
which he might communicate with them in case of neces- 


THE STANDARD-BEARER FALLS. 


177 


eity, instead of camel -posts which stopped running just 
when they were most wanted,” persisted Dick. “The 
responsibility has been too much for any one man.” 

“I have an idea,” said Georgia, with some hesitation, 
“ that the case is not quite so simple as you think. I have 
attended a large number of paralytic cases, but I have never 
met with symptoms quite like these. Sir Dugald has now 
passed into a state more resembling coma — that is to say, 
he is apparently asleep, hut cannot he awakened. He 
seems incapable of originating any movement, and yet I 
am almost convinced that he is partially conscious of what 
is going on around him. He cannot speak or open his 
eyes ; but his limbs are not rigid, and I believe he is alive 
to sensations of physical pain.” 

“ But to what conclusions do these observations lead you, 
Miss Keeling?” asked Stratford. 

“It is merely a conjecture of mine, hut I think I have 
one or two other facts to support it. I believe that this 
attack is the result of the administration of poison.” 

“ Poison ! ” broke from her hearers in various tones of 
incredulity ; and Stratford added, “ With all deference to 
you, Miss Keeling, I can’t help thinking that you are gener- 
alising too hastily from the circumstances of poor Headlam’s 
death. What opportunity has there been for poisoning the 
Chief that would not have affected all of us equally ? ” 

“Chanda Lai said something to Lady Haigh about a 
ring.” 

“ Fath-ud-Din’s ring ! ” The men looked at one another 
for a moment, then Stratford spoke again. 

“ But we are not in the days of the Borgias now. How 
could these people have become acquainted with such a 
trick as that?” 

“ Surely,” said Georgia, “ it is more likely that the 
Borgias owed their methods to the East than that the East 

M 


178 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


borrowed from them? We have learnt already, by sad 
experience, that Fath-nd-Din is a most expert poisoner, and 
we can guess that he would consider it to be to his interest 
to rid himself of Sir Dugald.” 

“ The thing is absolutely impossible,” said Dick, not con- 
sidering the rudeness of his language. Georgia looked at 
hi m in some surprise. 

“I may tell you that it was from examination of the 
symptoms that I first formed my theory. Major North, and 
that it was only when I was trying to find out whether 
there had been any opportunity of administering poison 
that I heard of the ring from Chanda Lai.” 

“ But are you acquainted with any poison which would 
produce exactly these effects ? ” asked Stratford. The rest 
waited eagerly for the reply, and their faces fell when 
Georgia answered — 

“ No, I am not. There are circumstances connected with 
the illness which I cannot explain by attributing it to the 
action of any specific poison of which I have ever heard. 
But you must have noticed in the papers about ten years 
ago various references to certain Asiatic poisons, the nature 
of which was quite unknown to Western medical men. It 
was supposed that a poison of this kind had been adminis- 
tered to a particular ruler whom it was desired to dethrone, 
and that it acted in such a way as to paralyse his will and 
his powers of mind. I do not say that this is the same 
poison — in fact I believe it can^t be, for that was supposed 
not to affect the physical powers in any way — but I think 
that this belongs to the same class. You saw how poor 
Sir Dugald struggled against the effects; only a man of 
indomitable will could have held out as ho did. But he 
could not continue to resist, and when he had attained his 
great object, and signed that paper, his will-power collapsed 
suddenly. It is just possible that if the emergency had 


THE STANDARD-BEARER FALLS. 


179 


continued to exist, he might have held out, and succeeded 
in throwing off the effects of the poison.” 

“ And you really think it possible that enough poison to 
produce such results as these could he contained in that 
ringl” asked Stratford. 

‘‘I do; and I want you to help me to persuade Lady 
Haigh to allow me to try the effect of different antidotes. 
She is so thoroughly convinced that the attack is a simple 
paralytic seizure, brought on by overwork and worry, that 
she refuses to let me make trial of any strong remedies lest 
they should retard Sir Dugald’s recovery. But I am very 
much afraid that unless we can expel the poison from the 
system, or at any rate neutralise it, he will not recover 
at all.” 

“ I wish we had a proper surgeon here ! ” said Dick, rising 
and walking restlessly up and down. 

“ We have,” cried Fitz, bristling up at once in defence of 
Georgia. 

“I meant a medical man” said Dick, casting a stony 
glance at him. 

“It seems to me, North,” put in Stratford, “that you 
forget we ought to be very thankful to have a doctor here 
at all You can’t mean to imply that it makes any differ- 
ence that — that ” 

“ That I have the misfortune to he a woman, as Major 
North thinks,” said Georgia, quietly. 

“Well, I know that I would never let a lady doctor 
touch me if I was ill,” said Dick, with painful candour. 

“I don’t think there are many that would care to,” 
snapped Fitz, who was boiling over with rage. 

“ Anstruther, you forget yourself,” said Stratford. “ Miss 
Keeling, I must ask you to forgive us. We have been so 
much upset by what has happened that we really can’t look 
at things coolly. We know that North has always been an 


180 


PEACE WITH HONOUK. 


obstinate heretic on this subject, but I’m sure I need not 
teU you that if he was really iU he would be only too grate- 
ful if you would do what you could for him. Still, in the 
present case ” 

“ Yes 1 ” said Georgia, eagerly, as he paused. 

‘^It is such a fearful risk. If you could say definitely 
what poison you suspected, or even if we had any inde- 
pendent proof that poison had been administered at all, I 
would add my voice to yours in trying to persuade Lady 
Haigh to adopt your views ; but as it is, you must confess 
that they are built up of a succession of hypotheses, and if 
the hypotheses are false, your treatment might do irremedi- 
able harm by weakening the patient to such an extent that 
he would have no power to rally from what may, after all, 
be what you called just now a simple paralytic seizure. 
You are quite convinced of the truth of your theory, I 
suppose 1 ” 

“I would stake my professional reputation upon it,” 
said Georgia; “but I suppose” — throwing back her head 
proudly — “ that it would be quite useless to try to convince 
any one here that my reputation is as much to me as a 
professional man^s is to him. But it is not that — it is to 
see poor Sir Dugald lying there insensible, and Lady Haigh 
so miserable about him, and not to be allowed to try what 
I believe would set him right. After all” — her tone 
changed — “I am the doctor here, and I am not answer- 
able to any one in authority. Why should I not try 
the remedies which commend themselves to mel” 

“Scarcely without the consent of the patient’s friends 

” began Stratford, puzzled by this new development; 

but Dick interposed roughly enough. 

“No, Miss Keeling. If your hypothesis proved to be 
incorrect, and the result turned out badly, it might become 
a manslaughter case. It is quite out of the question that 


THE STANDARD-BEAREK FALLS. 


181 


you should be allowed either to run such a risk yourself, or 
to expose the Chief to it, and I shall back Stratford up in 
preventing you from attempting anything of the kind you 
propose.” 

“By force, I presume?” asked Georgia, sarcastically. 
“You seem to be losing sight of the fact that, if my 
theory is correct, it would be incurring the same guilt not 
to take the steps I recommend. Major ^orth.” 

“ Allow me to say. Miss Keeling, that there are very few 
juries that would not prefer the opinion of four men to that 
of one lady.” 

“I can quite believe it,” returned Georgia, scornfully, 
“after what I have heard to-day. It would make no 
difference that the woman was an M.D. of London, and 
that none of the men knew enough of medicine to describe 
the symptoms of arsenical poisoning. They must know 
best. Oh, I might have known that when Lady Haigh 
refused to listen to me there was no hope of getting four 
men to look at things in a less biassed way. She turned 
against me because anxiety for her husband has blinded her 
judgment for the time, but your opposition springs from 
mere prejudice. Thank you for the things you have been 
saying. Major Korth. One conversation of this kind teaches 
one more than months of ordinary conventional intercourse. 
If I were not so angry, I could laugh to think that we are 
wrangling here while poor Sir Dugald is lying in this help- 
less state — and that you should all combine to prevent my 
doing what I can for him, simply because I happen to be a 
woman ! ” 

“I think you are a little unjust. Miss Keeling,” said 
Stratford. “My objection is not that you are a woman, 
but that you confess you cannot be certain of the facts 
of the case.” 

“How could any one be certain under the present cir- 


182 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


cumstances, unless Fath-ud-Din had confessed openly what 
he had done, and contributed a specimen of the poison for 
analysis? You know that if Dr Headlam had been alive 
you would not have thought of questioning what he saw fit 
to do. I only ask for fair play. Chivalry I don’t expect — 
perhaps it is as well that I don’t under the circumstances — 
but I have a right to ask for the justice that would be 
shown to a man in my position.” 

And Georgia gathered up her work and the kitten, and 
retired very deliberately, with the honours of war, leaving 
the men disinclined for further conversation. Kustendjian 
betook himself to his own quarters, where he was in the 
habit of donning a semi-oriental costume in which to take 
his ease after work was done ; and Stratford, accompanied 
by Fitz, who had listened with a certain mournful pride to 
Georgia’s indictment of i^'orth, adjourned to the ofiSce, there 
to compile the regular account of the proceedings of the day. 
When the record was complete, and Fitz had returned to 
the terrace, Stratford, who had lingered to arrange the 
papers in the safe, was surprised by the entrance of Dick, 
who lounged in moodily without saying anything, and 
propped. himself against the wall. 

“ Why don’t you tell me that I am a dismal fool and a 
howling cad ? ” he inquired at last. 

“ If you know it already, though it’s rather late in the 
day now, it can’t be much good my repeating the infor- 
mation,” said Stratford, drily. 

“ Oh, go on ! Swear at me, call me names — anything 
you like ! I am positively yearning for a thorough good 
slanging — might make me feel a little better.” 

“ Then I should recommend you to apply to Miss Keeling. 
I don’t fancy you’ll want to repeat the experience.” 

“ Stratford, tell me what I am to do. I can’t think what 
possessed me just now. Of course, it stands to reason that 


THE STANDARD-BEARER FALLS. 


183 


we couldn’t allow her to do what she wanted. If she tried 
her experiments, and the Chief died, she would probably let 
herself in for an inquiry when we got hack to Khemistan. 
Her name would be bandied about all over the place, and 
every wretched native penny-a-liner in India would be 
cooking up articles to reflect on medical women.” 

“ And, by way of improving matters, you gave her a taste 
of the sort of thing beforehand. It doesn’t seem to have 
occurred to you that Miss Keeling would probably care 
comparatively little for having her name bandied about in 
the papers if she was convinced that her friends — and I 
suppose you would call yourself one — believed in her.” 

Dick stared. “But that’s all rot, you know!” he said. 
“ If a woman won’t look after herself in those ways, one 
must do it for her. To think of her becoming the subject 
of bazaar gup/ — why, you know, one couldn’t allow it. Ko, 
I’m not a bit sorry that I took her in hand and quenched 
her aspirations ; but I am perfectly sick when I think of 
the way I did it. If she hadn’t taken it for granted that 
she was in the right all the time, I shouldn’t have got so 
mad ; but it makes a man look such a cub to — to lose his 
temper when he’s arguing with a lady. As she said, I have 
done myself more harm with her to-day than months would 
undo. How can I put it right % ” 

“I haven’t a notion,” responded Stratford, cheerfully. 
“ Any one would have thought from your manner that you 
were bidding successfully for a final rupture. Of course, 
the only possible thing to do is to apologise. As a gentle- 
man, you can’t avoid that, but I doubt whether it will do 
you much good. If you will excuse my saying it, Korth, I 
think you have tried this Eevolt-of-Man business once too 
often.” 

“ Kub it in 1 ” said Dick, mournfully. “ The harder the 
better.” 


184 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ Oh, get out ! ” cried Stratford. “ This office isn’t a 
confessional. Eat your humble pie as soon as you get the 
chance, and be jolly thankful if your penitence is accepted. 
That’s all I have to say. !N'ow clear out. Why, I have 
more hope of young Anstriither than of you. The way that 
cub has been licked into shape is wonderful. Three months 
ago he would have been at your throat for half the things 
you said to-day. Slope !” 

Dick departed, but he found no opportunity of following 
the counsel of his too candid friend. The men dined alone 
that night, and neither Lady Haigh nor Georgia appeared 
on the terrace afterwards. The next morning, as there was 
no change in Sir Dugald’s condition. Lady Haigh ventured, 
at Georgia’s earnest request, to leave him to the care of 
Chanda Lai while she presided as usual at the late break- 
fast. Dick took the place next to her, which he had 
occupied of late, and secured for himself the first cup of 
coffee, as he invariably did. 

“ Major North,” said Georgia, shortly, “ will you kindly 
pass me my coffee 1 ” 

Taken by surprise, Dick did as she asked, and her 
eyes met his in a defiant glance as she raised the cup to her 
lips. He read her meaning at once. She would have none 
of his protection ; she preferred, indeed, to run the risk of 
being poisoned rather than owe immunity from such a fate 
to him. The realisation of this fact cut him more deeply 
than anything she had said the day before, and he began to 
regret the temerity with which he had plunged into the fray, 
although in talking to Stratford he had scouted the idea of 
entertaining such a feeling. 

About an hour later, when Georgia, after careful recon- 
noitring to make sure that the coast was clear, had settled 
herself in a shady corner of the terrace to study in peace a 
work on poisons which she had found among Dr Headlam’s 


THE STANDARD-BEARER FALLS. 


185 


books, she was surprised by the sudden appearance of the 
man whom she least desired to see. He had evidently been 
engaged in inspecting the stores in the cellars under the 
terrace, for the first intimation she had of his vicinity was 
the sight of him as he came up the steps. 

“ I want to ask you to forgive me for what I said yester- 
day, Miss Keeling,” he said, standing before her. 

“ Can you forgive yourself 1 ” asked Georgia, quickly. 

“ Hot for the way in which I spoke — nor indeed for the 
things I said, but I think you would look more leniently 
on them if you realise that it was anxiety for you that 
prompted them.” 

“ Thank you,” said Georgia, raising her eyebrows, “ hut I 
am afraid that my poor feminine mind is scarcely capable 
of appreciating an anxiety which displays itself in such a 
marked — I might almost say such an unpleasant way. 
Perhaps you will kindly understand, after this, that I 
had rather be without it.” 

It was undignified, she knew, but she could not resist the 
temptation to repay him in his own coin. Last night she 
had been angry and indignant when she realised how much 
his words had hurt her, and it gave her now a kind of 
vengeful pleasure to feel that she was hurting him. 

“ You are very cruel,” he said, “ but perhaps I deserve it.” 

** Perhaps ? ” Georgia sat upright, and her eyes flashed. 
“Major Korth, you conceived a prejudice against me the 
first time you saw me in the spring, and you spared no 
pains to make it evident. Thinking that you might 
possibly imagine yourself to have a just cause of complaint 
against me, on account of what happened long ago, although 
I should have thought it wiser and more dignified for both 
of us to forget the circumstance, I have done my best, 
for Mab^s sake, to treat you as I should wish to be able 
to treat her brother. I had begun to hope that you also had 


186 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


recognised the advantage of continuing our acquaintance on 
this footing, and I have been in the habit lately of speak- 
ing to you more freely than I should have cared to do to a 
declared enemy. In return, you do your titmost to humiliate 
me in the presence of Mr Kustendjian and Mr Anstruther. 
You have taught me a lesson ; I confess that I have taken 
some time in learning it, hut I shall not make mistakes in 
future.” 

“ Then you wonT even let us be friends ? ” 

I think it will he better not. Major North. The honour 
of your friendship is rather a trying one for the recipient ; 
a stranger might even mistake it for enmity. It will relieve 
you of the unpleasant necessity of showing your friendship if 
we remain henceforth on the footing of mere acquaintances.” 

“ Have a little pity for me, Georgie.” 

If Dick had meant to make Georgia look at him, he had 
succeeded now. The glance she gave him withered him 
into silence. 

“You forget yourself. Major North. At least, I have 
never given you reason to insult me.” 


CHAPTEE XIIL 

A PROFESSIONAL SUMMONS. 

The long hours of another day and night dragged slowly 
away, and Sir Dugald’s condition remained unchanged. The 
sight of her husband lying on his bed with half-closed eyes, 
speechless and incapable of changing his position, moved 
Lady Haigh to a fervent hope that Georgia’s conjecture as 
to his partial consciousness of what passed around him might 


A PROFESSIONAL SUMMONS. 


187 


not be true. To know himself absolutely powerless, to per- 
ceive that things were going wrong hut to be unable to 
rectify them, she could imagine no keener torment for a 
man of his stamp. If he continued in this state, she said 
to herself remorsefully, as she administered the liquids 
which were the only nourishment he could swallow, she 
would be inclined to allow Georgia to have her way, in 
spite of the misgivings of Stratford and North, for nothing 
could he worse than this living death. Even now, “If 
you could only tell me you were sure it was poison, Georgie 
dear,” she said, “I would put him into your hands unre- 
servedly ; but as it is, the risk is too fearful. He is all I 
have, you know.” And although Georgia regretted the de- 
cision, it did not affect her as the opposition of the men had 
done, for she knew that Lady Haigh would have withstood 
any male doctor with exactly the same pertinacity under 
the circumstances. 

The political duties of the Mission were somewhat in 
abeyance just now, for Sir Dugald’s illness rendered it im- 
possible to initiate any fresh diplomatic action, and this 
enforced idleness had a bad effect on the spirits of all. 
Even Eitz had lost his cheerfulness, and the kitten escaped 
its daily lesson in gymnastics. Kustendjian, his services 
as interpreter not being required, spent most of his time in 
his own quarters, where, as he informed Stratford with 
appropriate seriousness of demeanour, he occupied himself 
in making his will several times over, and in writing fare- 
well letters to his friends. In spite, or perhaps in conse- 
quence, of the lack of active occupation, however, the post 
which Sir Dugald had bequeathed to Stratford promised to 
be no sinecure, and more especially as Dick, since his inter- 
view with Georgia, had been in a villainously bad temper, 
and snapped at every one in a way that made his friend long 
to kick him. 


188 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“They all want a desperate emergency to calm them 
down,” said the harassed commander to himself. “This 
monotonous life within four walls, full of suspense, would 
get on anybody’s nerves, and they will take to quarrelling 
soon. When that happens, it’s all up with us. I shall 
have to go and eat humble pie to Miss Keeling if this goes 
on, and ask her not to treat Korth quite so much like an 
officious stranger who has spoken to her without an intro- 
duction. As the acting head of affairs, I could put it to 
her that her method of exercising discipline has a distinctly 
bad effect on the morale of the force.” 

The emergency which Stratford desired was closer at hand 
when he longed for it than he expected, and as is usually 
the case with emergencies, it did not arrive quite in the 
form which he would have chosen had his wishes been con- 
sulted. Its inception was marked by the in no way unusual 
event of the arrival of Fath-ud-Din, desiring to reopen 
negotiations, on the morning of the second day after Sir 
Dugald’s seizure. All the day before, so the Vizier averred, 
he had been expecting to receive a message summoning him 
back to the Mission, and announcing that his terms were 
accepted. Hearing nothing, he might well have gone 
straight to the Scythian envoy and entered into an 
arrangement with him, but so great was the esteem which 
he felt for the English, and especially for the members of 
the present expedition, and so high was the King’s appre- 
ciation of the power and good fortune of the British Empire, 
that he was loath to bring about a definite rupture of diplo- 
matic relations. He had returned, therefore, to lay his 
offer once more before Sir Dugald, and to find out whether 
it was impossible to effect a compromise. 

Stratford was by no means anxious to undertake the 
delicate task of endeavouring to resist the Vizier’s blandish- 
ments without turning him into an open enemy, and did 


A PROFESSIONAL SUMMONS. 


189 


his best to postpone the evil day by telling him that Sir 
Dugald was indisposed, and could not be troubled with 
business. But Fath-ud-Din displayed so much anxiety to 
see the Envoy, even though only for a moment, and in 
bed, that Stratford, in order to avoid the discovery of Sir 
Dugald’s real condition, no whisper of which had as yet 
been allowed to creep out into the town, was obliged to say 
that Sir Dugald must not be disturbed, but that the con- 
duct of affairs had been delegated to himself. 

The Yizier showed great interest in this piece of news, 
and immediately asked for a conference with Stratford, a 
conference so important that the servants were to be ex- 
cluded from the room, and the greatest precautions taken 
to prevent eavesdropping or interruption. Stratford was 
heartily sick of these conferences, each one of which had 
hitherto resulted only in the offer of terms more impossible 
of acceptance than those last brought forward, and he was 
also convinced that the delay in settling matters with the 
Scythian envoy was due to no compunction on the part of 
Eath-ud-Din, but merely to the fact that he could not get 
the price he wanted. Still, even in view of the further 
possibility that the arrangement with Scythia had after all 
been concluded, and that the present visit was simply a 
blind, the Vizier’s request could not very well be refused, 
and a move was made into the Durbar-hall from the veran- 
dah, the servants being placed to guard the doors. 

On the terrace in the inner court Lady Haigh, who had 
come outside for a breath of fresh air, was discussing the 
position of affairs with Georgia. They had not yet reached 
the point at which conversation of this kind ceases to bring 
some comfort, or at any rate distraction, for despair must 
be very near at hand when no one cares any longer to 
inquire “What is to be done?” and when there is no one 
else to take up the challenge and suggest some means, how- 


190 


PEACE WITH HONOUK. 


ever impracticable, for obtaining relief. To them, as they 
sat there, came a messenger from Ismail Bakhsh the gate- 
keeper, saying that there was a negro at the door belonging 
to the Palace harem, and asking whether he was to be 
admitted. Lady Haigh had him brought in at once, when 
he explained that he bore a message to the doctor lady, 
entreating her to come to the Palace immediately. The 
litter and the escort of horsemen were waiting outside, for 
Ismail Bakhsh would not hear of admitting them into the 
courtyard without orders from Stratford, and Stratford was 
not to be disturbed. 

“ Shall you go, Georgie ” asked Lady Haigh. 

“Of course,” returned Georgia, astonished by the ques- 
tion. “ I am afraid something must have gone wrong with 
the Queen’s eyes. I only hope they haven’t undone the 
bandages too soon.” 

“ I think that perhaps it might be as well before going 
to ask the gentlemen what their opinion is.” 

“ I really do not propose to ask leave from Mr Stratford 
and Major North before I go to visit my patients,” said 
Georgia, stiffening visibly. 

“But they might have some reason for objecting. Of 
course, they have said nothing of the kind, and it may be 
only my fancy, but I don’t quite like your going, Georgie. 
It doesn’t seem safe, after the things that have happened 
lately.” 

“Why, Lady Haigh, you wouldn’t have me disregard a 
professional summons on the plea of danger ? ” said Georgia, 
taking the hurka which Eahah had brought her, and array- 
ing herself in it. 

“ No, of course not ] but I don’t feel certain about this 
one, somehow. In any case, Georgie, promise me that you 
will not take anything to eat or to drink at the Palace.” 

“Nothing but coffee, at any rate,” said Georgia. “When 


A PKOFESSIONAL SUMMONS. 


191 


IS’ur J ahan pours it out for me herself, and takes a sip from 
the cup to show that it is all right, I can’t hurt her feelings 
by refusing it.” 

“ I wish I could ask Mr Stratford what he thinks,” said 
Lady Haigh, reverting to her former strain. It could do 
no harm.” 

“ But you don’t think that he can see further into a mill- 
stone than you can, do you, Lady Haigh 1 What difference 
could it make what he thought! He doesn’t know any- 
thing more than we do, and I am sure he couldn’t conjure up 
worse fears than those we have been indulging in lately.” 

“ He might think it better that you should not go,” said 
Lady Haigh, without considering the effect of her words. 

“ Then we may regard it as just as well that he is not 
here, since what he thought would make no difference to 
me,” said Georgia, with an ominous tightening of the lips. 
“ Are you ready, Kahah ! ” 

And the two veiled figures passed under the archway and 
through the outer court, entering the litter at the gate with- 
out attracting the attention of any of the diplomatists in 
the Durbar-hall, about the doors of which Lady Haigh 
hovered unhappily for two or three minutes, feeling unde- 
cided how to act, and only returned to her own domain on 
being assured over and over again by the servants that the 
conference was on no account to be interrupted. She went 
slowly back to Sir Dugald’s sick-room, and sat down by the 
bedside ; but she could not be still. An unwonted restless- 
ness was upon her, impelling her to move about the room 
and alter the position of every medicine-bottle and every 
piece of furniture in it. Presently she stepped out again 
on the terrace, and looked across at Bachelors’ Buildings, 
feeling half inclined to force her way into the Durbar-hall 
and interrupt the conference; but she scolded herself for 
her folly, and returned to her patient. What good could it 


192 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


possibly do to break up the durbar by calling Mr Stratford 
out in order to communicate to him the momentous intelli- 
gence that Miss Keeling had gone to visit her patient at the 
Palace ? It was with this very object in view that she had 
come to Kubbet-ul-Haj. 

“I am getting nervous,” said Lady Haigh to herself, 
“and I have always been so proud of being absolutely 
without nerves ! I won’t give in to it. What is there to 
be frightened about 1 Georgia has gone to the Palace over 
and over again, and I have never minded it a bit.” 

Nevertheless, she wandered desolately from the sick-room 
to the terrace and back again several times, and heaved a 
sigh of relief when she caught a glimpse through the arch- 
way of a bustle in the outer court, and gathered that the 
Vizier was taking his leave. Presently Stratford and Dick 
came in sight, and she had just time to decide that she 
would not trouble them with her ridiculous fancies, before 
they mounted the steps. 

“Well, had Fath-ud-Din anything new to propose?” she 
asked. 

“Oh no,” returned Stratford, with inefiFable weariness. 
“It was the same old game all through. He wanted to 
bribe us to sign his treaty, or he didn’t mind our bribing 
him to sign ours. He has raised his terms, though — I think 
he imagines that we are of a more squeezable disposition 
than the Chief. He wants ten thousand pounds for him- 
self, and a written promise that the Government wiU support 
Antar Khan in case of the King’s death. A little secret 
treaty aU to himself would just meet his views.” 

“ He is really very tiresome,” said Lady Haigh, sympa- 
thetically. “ One feels so dreadfully undignified staying on 
like this, when he is always making such insulting offers. 
I don’t want to interfere in your department, Mr Stratford, 
but if we hear nothing soon — say to-day or to-morrow — 


A PROFESSIONAL SUMMONS. 


193 


from Jahan Beg, would it not be advisable to think about 
sending a messenger to report our position at Fort Eahmat- 
Ullah?” 

“ I think of it continually,” said Stratford ; “ but none 
of us here could hope to leave the city without being 
recognised, and if they mean to cut us off from communica- 
tion with Khemistan, it would be certain death to the man 
who ventured to start, while we should be as badly off as 
ever.” 

“ Still, we can’t spend the term of our natural lives 
shut up here,” began Lady Haigh, emphatically ; but Dick 
interrupted her. 

“ m go,” he said, promptly ; “ it’s just the sort of thing 
I like. I have nothing to keep me here, and nothing to do. 
I am positively yearning for a job. I’ll start to-night.” 

“ Gently,” said Stratford. “We must figure out a plan 
of campaign first. But if any one could get through, 
North, you could, to judge by your Eahmat-UUah per- 
formance ; and Fath-ud-Din’s language to-day was really 
so unpleasantly threatening, that I think it is time for us 
to make tracks.” 

“Did he go so far as to threaten youl” asked Lady 
Haigh. 

“There certainly seemed to be a distinct suggestion of 
menace in his words, and that not merely the old bugbear 
of the Scythian envoy. But of course it may be all 
bounce. Hullo ! I wonder I didn’t murder this little 
animal.” He stooped and lifted the white kitten, which 
had made a sudden dash at his boot from an ambush 
near at hand. “Why aren’t you with your mistress, 
Colleen Bawnl I thought you always stuck to her.” 

“Oh, Miss Keeling can’t take her to the Palace,” said 
Lady Haigh, with a nervous little laugh. “ It wouldn’t 
look professional, you know.” 

N 


194 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ Miss Keeling gone to the Palace ! ” Stratford’s eye 
sought Dick’s, hut met no answering glance. “Why 
should she have gone there just nowl I thought the 
operation was over.” 

“ Oh, the Queen sent a message to beg her to come, and 
she was afraid something must have gone wrong, so she 
hurried off. You don’t think there is any reason why 
she should have refused, do you?” 

“I don’t know. It seems absurd, but I feel more at 
ease when we are all safe inside these walls. I can’t 
think how it is that we didn’t hear Miss Keeling start.” 

“ Oh, the escort did not come into the court, because 
Ismail Bakhsh would not open the gate, and we could 
not tell you she was going, for the servants said you 
were not to be interrupted.” 

“That was Fath-ud-Din’s doing. It looks very fishy 
altogether. I hope it’s not a trap. I suppose there’s no 
possibility of stopping her now before she gets to the 
Palace?” 

“Dear me, no!” said Lady Haigh, with conviction. 
“ She ought to be on her way back by this time. Ko ; 
it’s quite clear that we can do nothing.” 

“ Except await events,” said Stratford, drearily ; and Lady 
Haigh remembered that she had left Sir Dugald alone for a 
long time, and returned to his side not much comforted. 

In the meantime, Georgia had reached the Palace without 
mishap, and, on sending a message by one of the slaves, 
was welcomed at the door of the harem by Kur Jahan. 
To her dismay, she found the girl in deep mourning. 
She wore no jewels, her hair was unbraided, her dress 
was coarse and squalid, and her feet bare. 

“What is the matter, Kur Jahan?” asked Georgia, 
anxiously. “ Has anything gone wrong with the Queen 
or Kustam Khan, or is it your baby?” 


A PROFESSIONAL SUMMONS. 


195 


It is my father,” said Hur Jahan, in a hurried whisper, 
so low that Eahah was obliged to come quite close in order 
to translate what she said. “ 0 doctor lady, hast thou not 
heard? He was seized eleven days ago, and thrown into 
prison, by order of our lord the King.” 

“But he is not dead?” 

“ God knows,” said Kur Jahan. “ It may even he that, 
hut we have not heard it. We know not where he is, 
nor what has befallen him since he was taken away.” 

Georgia gasped. This news was the death-blow to the 
hopes which the party at the Mission had been cherishing. 
It was evident that Jahan Beg had been arrested almost 
immediately after his last colloquy with Sir Dugald, and 
before he could take any steps with reference to sending 
a messenger to Fort Kahmat-Ullah, so that help was as 
far off as ever. Had the King and Fath-ud-Din discovered 
his visits to the Mission, or was it merely that the YizieFs 
hatred had at last burst its bounds? She turned to ask 
Nur Jahan on what charge he had been arrested, but smiled 
at her own folly when she remembered that in this happy 
land there was neither Habeas Corpus Act nor penalty for 
false imprisonment. 

“ It is good of thee to come to us, 0 doctor lady,” said 
Kur Jahan. “The Queen has been wearying to hear thy 
voice. She said that thou hadst heard of our trouble 
and forsaken us ; but I said that it was not so, for that 
where there was sorrow there wouldst thou he to comfort 
it.” 

“ Then the Queen is no more cheerful than she was ? ” 

“ How should she be, now that this new trial is come 
upon us ? Her slaves and I have kept from her all that we 
could ; but she guesses what we do not tell her. Only she 
has not wept, for she knows that would injure her eyes, 
and h( r heart longs to behold my son before she dies.” 


196 


PEACE WITH HONOUB. 


“ But have you pleaded with the King for your father’s 
life?” 

“ My mother has. She is his own cousin, and yet she 
went to him as a suppliant, and entreated mercy for her 
husband ; but he refused to hear her, and the rabble of the 
city broke into her house and set it on fire. Then she took 
refuge here with her household, and we have waited in vain 
for news ever since.” 

“ But does your mother live here in the King’s house, and 
eat his bread, when he has treated her husband so badly ? ” 

“What else could she do? Our lord the King is her 
uncle’s son. Where could she take refuge but in his house 
with his wife ? He will suffer no harm to happen to her, 
for it is only against my father that he is wroth. But I 
will take thee to see my mother, 0 doctor lady, when thou 
hast first visited the Queen, for her heart is sad and it may 
cheer her to hear thy voice.” 

They went on into the Queen’s room, and Georgia ex- 
amined the bandages and found them intact. It was as 
yet too early to remove them in order to discover whether 
the operation had been successful, and she remarked to 
Kur Jahan that it would have been as well not to send for 
her until two or three days later, when she could have super- 
intended their removal. 

“ But we have not sent for thee, 0 doctor lady,” said Hur 
Jah^n in surprise. 

“ Hot sent for me ? ” cried Georgia. “ But I had a mes- 
sage from the Queen ! ” 

Hur Jahan shook her head, and the Queen spoke in a 
weak, quivering voice — 

“ It is of my lord’s kindness, then, that we behold thee, 
0 doctor lady. When he last visited me, I was mourning 
that we saw thee so seldom, and now he has brought thee 
hither.” 


A PROFESSIONAL SUMMONS. 


197 


“ I should certainly not have come for a day or two if I 
had known that there was no change,” said Georgia ; “ nor 
should I have obeyed a message from the King, even though 
sent in your name.” But the poor Queen’s evident pleasure 
in her society moved her to pity, and she talked cheerfully 
to her for a while before taking her leave. 

There were a few directions as to various points of 
treatment to be given to Kur Jahan, and when these had 
been duly explained and a fresh bottle of medicine pro- 
mised, Georgia rose to go. Kur Jahan led her down the 
passage and into another room, which was filled with women 
in mourning. They were all sitting on the floor round an 
elderly lady, whose grey hair was besprinkled with dust, 
and they relieved one another at intervals in uttering a few 
words of lamentation and then breaking into a low, pro- 
longed waiL Georgia had no difficulty in guessing that 
this was the bereaved household of Jahan Beg, and she felt 
some delicacy in interrupting the mournful proceedings ; 
but Kur Jahan led her in and presented her to her mother, 
and the wailing women made room for her in their circle. 
At first she was afraid that it might be considered only 
proper politeness to take down her hair and cast dust upon 
it as they were doing ; but she was not long in discovering 
that the duty of mourning had become a little monotonous 
fifter ten days’ diligent performance of it, and that the ladies 
were not indisposed to welcome the slight relief and, dis- 
traction which might be afforded by the foreigner’s visit. 

Kur Jahan’s mother raised her head, shook the dust out 
of her eyes, and after surveying Georgia from head to foot 
with great interest, began the invariable catechism. Was 
the doctor lady married? How had she learned her wisdom? 
Where did she get her clothes ? Why did she do her hair 
in that way ? Had she a father, mother, brothers, sisters ? 
What had brought her to Kubbet-ul-Haj ? Had her family 


198 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


raised no objections to such an extraordinary proceeding*? 
Was the Kaisar really a woman*? Was it then true that 
in England the women ruled and the men obeyed ? Why 
did the doctor lady wear no jewellery*? Which member of 
the Mission was it that dealt in magical arts — herself, or the 
Envoy, or the doctor who was dead *? 

The Princess stopped at last for want of breath, and 
Georgia, having answered as many of the questions as she 
could remember, expressed the sorrow she had felt on 
account of the misfortune that had fallen upon Jahan Beg, 
adding a hope that he would soon be restored to liberty. 
Erom all sides came the answer that whatever happened to 
him would be his fate, which could not be averted; but 
when she asked presently to what cause his sudden arrest 
was to be attributed, a storm of passion swept over the 
crowd of women. It was all the doing of Eath-ud-Din — 
might he die unlamented in the flower of his age ! might 
his children live but to disgrace him ! and might the graves 
of his parents and grandparents be dishonoured, yea, those 
of his ancestors to the remotest generation ! After this 
outburst they came to definite charges, the Princess speak- 
ing first, and one woman after another chiming in with 
corroborative evidence. 

Eath-ud-Din robbed the treasury and deceived the King, 
ground the faces of the honest poor, and kept the lawless 
rabble in his pay. He meant to place his nephew, Antar 
Khan, on the throne after his father, instead of the right- 
ful heir, Eustam Khan, to whom God had granted such a 
promising son as showed he was intended to be king. He 
had a daughter who was supposed to be the most beautiful 
child in Ethiopia, and he was bringing her up in the coun- 
try in a fortress of his own, where no one could see her, 
intending (such was the height of his presumption) to marry 
her to Antar Khan when she was old enough. And for 


A PROFESSIONAL SUMMONS. 


199 


her guardian there he had an old woman — a sorceress, who 
could destroy by her magic arts any undesirable stranger 
that might happen to approach the fortress, for she was one 
of the remnant of the Poisoners, a tribe of vagrants so noted 
for their evil deeds that the last King of Ethiopia had swept 
them almost out of the land. But this woman still remained, 
and that she worked at her old trade for Eath-ud-Din’s bene- 
fit there was no doubt, for did not all his enemies die mys- 
teriously, and no man could tell who had hurt them 1 To 
this old woman had descended the evil secrets of the whole 
tribe, and she knew of poisons and antidotes with which no 
one else in the world was acquainted. 

The women were so eager in their denunciations of the 
Grand Yizier that Georgia’s voice was unheeded when she 
tried to interrupt them, for the story of the witch and her 
poisons had recalled to her mind the recent events at 
the Mission, and she was anxious to know where the old 
woman was to be found. But the untiring accusers were 
hurrying on with a catalogue of other crimes committed by 
Fath-ud-Din, and they were only checked by a voice from 
the doorway. 

“Dost thou not fear, 0 wife of Jahan Beg, thus with 
thy women to speak evil of those in authority 1 The arm 
of the Yizier has power to reach even to the house of the 
King.” 

“The cat may seize the mouse, 0 mother of Antar 
Khan,” replied the Princess with dignity, “ but the mouse 
may squeak.” 

The intruder laughed contemptuously and waddled into 
the room between the rows of women, who had risen 
at her entrance. She was still a young woman, and might 
liave been considered beautiful but for her exceeding stout- 
ness (a quality, however, which is not considered a defect 
in Ethiopia), and she was dressed with the utmost magni- 


200 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


ficence which Kuhhet-ul-Haj could show. Eich satins of 
varying colours, Kashmir shawls, and transparent gauzes 
were heaped upon her person in a way which declared 
them to he intended for display rather than for use ; her 
eyelids were blackened, and her hands and lips reddened, 
and she was literally loaded with jewels. Several women 
followed her, in one of whom Georgia recognised the girl 
who had shouted across the courtyard to her on the last 
occasion of her visiting the Palace, and these also had 
donned all their finest possessions in preparation for paying 
this call. It was the direst insult to come dressed in such 
a style for a visit which was nominally one of condolence ; 
but Kur Jahan’s mother dissembled her wrath, and invited 
the young Queen to take a seat on the divan, while her 
attendants grouped themselves around her. When the 
visitor was comfortably settled, and had been accommodated 
with a pipe, she favoured Georgia with a prolonged stare. 

“Thou art the English doctor- woman P’ she asked, so 
insolently that her maids giggled at the tone. 

“ I am,’^ returned Georgia, looking her over calmly. 

“ Why hast thou never visited me, to eat bread in my 
chamber 1 ” 

“ I have never received an invitation,” said Georgia. 

Antar Khan’s mother turned to her attendants. 

“ Hear the doctor lady ! ” she cried. “ She is waiting 
for an invitation, instead of sending humbly to ask that 
she might be allowed to kiss the Queen’s feet!” 

Hot considering that so self-evident a fact called for 
comment, Georgia remained silent, which her assailant was 
unable to do. 

“ Think not that I came here to see thee,” she said. 

“ Oh, not at all,” said Georgia, pleasantly ; and there was 
a suspicious tremble in Eahah’s voice as she translated the 


answer. 


A PROFESSIONAL SUMMONS. 


201 


“ Because, if I desire it, I shall be able to see tbee con- 
tinually from henceforth,” pursued the Queen. “ But,” she 
added, with deep meaning, “ I shall not desire it. I would 
not have thee in my sight.” 

Georgia lifted her eyebrows slightly at this enigmatic 
and apparently uncalled-for remark, an action which seemed 
to irritate her opponent very much. She leaned forward 
when she spoke next, and her tone was full of menace. 

‘‘Thou art here — in the Palace.” 

“ I believe so,” returned Georgia, in some surprise 

“ But how wilt thou depart hence — and when 1 ” 

. “ In a few minutes, and as I came, I suppose. ” 

The Queen laughed shrilly, and her women joined their 
voices with hers. 

“Thou wilt never leave the Palace, 0 doctor lady. 
Before thou canst return to thy people there is a life to 
be given for thine, and who is there that will lay down his 
life for theel Thou hast neither husband nor father nor 
brother, and what man is there that will give his life for a 
woman that is not even of his house 1 ” 

Georgia’s heart was in her mouth as the full import of 
the words dawned upon her; but she turned quietly to 
Nur Jahan’s mother. 

“ I never care to prescribe for patients in public,” she 
said. “ Would it be possible for me to see the Queen in a 
separate room, with, perhaps, one of her attendants ” 

A thrill of expectation went round the circle as Eahah 
translated the words with much emphasis. Georgia singled 
out an old woman standing behind the Queen. 

“ Tell me, 0 my mother,” she said, “ whether thou hast 
long observed these symptoms in thy mistress'? Is she 
often like this “? Speak freely, for I cannot hope to cure 
her unless I know the truth.” 

“ Is the doctor- woman saying that I am mad ? ” burst 


202 


PEACE WITH HONOUR 


forth the Queen, glaring round at her attendants, whose 
faces assumed immediately an expression of pious horror, 
although they were unable to answer in the negative. 
“ I will show thee whether I am mad, thou infidel daughter 
of a dog!” she cried. “My lord shall give thee into my 
hands, and thou shalt know what I have wit to do.” 

“ I think not,” said Georgia with a smile, as her fingers 
closed on the butt of the little revolver she carried in a 
special pocket. Her feelings were so highly wrought that 
it was easier for her at the moment to smile than to speak, 
but the smile seemed to rouse her adversary to fury. She 
burst into a storm of threats and revilings such as Eahah 
declined to translate ; but Georgia gathered the impression 
that any one who was so unfortunate as to fall into the hands 
of Antar Khan’s mother would have little mercy to hope 
for, and might well welcome death as the chief blessing on 
earth. She rose and folded her hurka around her, and 
addressed the Princess. 

“I fear my presence merely excites the patient,” she 
said, “ and therefore I will go now. Perhaps I shall be 
able to see her another day when she is quieter, and there 
are not so many people present.” 

“Yes, go ! ” echoed the Queen and her women. “Go, if 
thou canst ! ” 

Accompanied by Hur Jahan, and followed by Eahah, 
Georgia walked down the passage to the door. As had been 
the case on the previous occasion, the litter was not there. 
Turning to Kur Jahan, Georgia asked her to send one of 
the slave-girls to summon it. 

“0 doctor lady,” whispered Hur Jahan, fearfully, “it 
is no use. There is evil intended against thee. Come 
back and remain in the chamber of my lord’s mother. 
It may be that they would not dare to drag thee from 
her presence.” 


AN ULTIMATUM. 


203 


“Are you also turning against me, JSTur Jahan 1 Send 
the woman at once, if you please. I shall not stay here.” 

Tremblingly Nur Jahan obeyed, while the young Queen 
and her women, who had followed them out, laughed and 
jeered. 

“ Never again wilt thou enter the litter, 0 doctor lady. 
It is well to give orders, but it is ill when they are not 
obeyed.” 

Nevertheless, after a delay of a few minutes, the litter 
appeared, to Georgia’s own astonishment, and the utter 
stupefaction of the Ethiopian women. Georgia’s spirits 
rose as she stepped into it, followed by Eahah, and she 
allowed herself to think that the Queen’s mysterious threats 
and extraordinary conduct had been part of a spiteful joke. 


CHAPTEE XIV. 

AN ULTIMATUM. 

As the morning hours passed on, the feeling of uneasiness 
at the Mission grew in intensity. Although Georgia’s visits 
to the Palace were rarely less than two hours in duration, 
and another hour must be allowed for the journey thither 
and the return, she had not been gone an hour and a half 
before Lady Haigh began to appear from the sick room at 
intervals of ten minutes, and inquire whether she had not 
come back yet. The men waited on the terrace, too full 
of anxiety to settle to any occupation, and the servants 
watched them furtively as they went about their duties. 
Whether the uneasiness was due to the Vizier’s threat, or 


204 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


to a feeling that the tension which had so long existed had 
nearly reached breaking- point, every one seemed to he con- 
scious that there was danger in the air. 

At length the shouts of running footmen at the outer 
gates announced an arrival of importance, and a sigh of 
relief broke from the watchers on the terrace. Miss 
Keeling had returned in safety after all, but this was 
the last time that she should leave the Mission unaccom- 
panied, and confide herself to the tender mercies of the 
sovereign of Ethiopia and his Ministers. But the shouts 
were not followed by the usual sounds of the creaking open 
of the ponderous gates and the rush of feet into the court- 
yard as the litter was carried up to the steps ; but only by 
a parleying between Ishmail Bakhsh and some one outside, 
which was audible in the inner court owing to the loud 
tones in which it was conducted, although the actual words 
could not be distinguished. Presently a servant approached 
the group through the archway. 

“ Highness,” he said, addressing Stratford, “ there are two 
lords outside, belonging to the King’s court, who desire to 
speak with the Sahibs, but they will not come inside the 
gate.” 

‘‘Whence this exceeding caution?” said Stratford, as he 
descended the steps. “They have never displayed any 
reluctance to come in before.” 

Ko one replied to his observation, and he went towards 
the gate, the other men following him, with Lady Haigh, 
uninvited and unnoticed, close at their heels. One of the 
doors was opened as they advanced, and they found them- 
selves face to face with their old friend, the ofi&cial who had 
met them on their first arrival in the city, and introduced 
them to their present quarters. Kow he looked uneasy and 
as though ashamed of the business on which he had come, 
while at his side was a hard-faced, eager man, whom the 


AN ULTIMATUM. 


205 


English recognised as one of Fath-nd-Din’s chief supporters 
among the Amirs. 

“Peace be upon you !” said Stratford. 

“ And upon thee be peace ! ” was the stereotyped reply. 

“ Will you not enter and eat bread with us 1 ” asked 
Stratford. 

“ My lord^s servants are commanded not to enter his 
house, nor yet to break bread with him and his young 
men,” returned the official, “ for their errand demands 
haste. Is the gracious lord, the Queen of England's Envoy, 
yet recovered of his sickness ? ” 

“ No, he is still indisposed, and I am here in his place,” 
said Stratford, restraining his impatience with an effort. 

“ Will my lord command his own servants to withdraw 
a space ? ” pursued the ambassador, evidently embarrassed, 
“ for I have to mention one who belongs to the great lord's 
household.” 

Stratford signed to the servants to withdraw a little, but 
intimated that Dick and Fitz were equally interested with 
himself in the matter now to be disclosed, while Kustendjian 
was necessary as interpreter. This having been made clear, 
they waited with breathless eagerness, for the ambassador 
seemed very much at a loss for words. 

“My lord knows,” he said at last, “that the English 
doctor lady came this day to visit the household of our 
lord the King?” 

“I know that she received an urgent message in the 
Queen’s name entreating her to come to the Palace, and 
that she hastened thither at once,” said Stratford. The 
official seemed to find a difficulty in proceeding, and his 
colleague took up the tale. 

“However that may be,” he said, “the doctor lady is 
now in the hands of our lord the King.” 

“ And how is that, pray ? ” asked Stratford. “ Since 


206 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


when has the King of Ethiopia adopted the plan of getting 
women into his power by false messages, and then kid- 
napping them?” 

“ In dealing with enemies and infidels, our lord the King 
pays more heed to the end than to the means,” said the Amir. 

‘‘ So it seems,” said Stratford, drily ; “ hut does he fight 
with women ? ” 

“Kay,” said the official, plucking up courage to speak 
again ; “ he fights with men, and therefore it is that we 
are here.” 

“ The King is evidently in need of money, and requires a 
ransom,” said Stratford, turning to the rest, and speaking 
with an airy confidence which he was far from feeling. 
“ How much does he want ? ” he asked of the messengers. 

“ Our lord desires not money, nor does he war with 
women,” repeated the Amir. “ In exchange for the 
woman he requires a man.” 

A gasp from Fitz, an exclamation from Dick, and a 
stifled cry from Lady Haigh warned Stratford of the 
effect which the announcement of the King’s demand had 
produced on his friends. He himself felt a certain relief 
— almost akin to the “ stern joy ” of the warrior — in the 
conviction that the crisis for which he had been looking 
had at last arrived, and his voice rang out clearly as he 
asked, “ And who is it that the King requires ? ” 

“ My lord must see,” said the old official reluctantly, 
“ that our lord the King desires him who is chief in 
authority among you to be sent to him, that he may make 
the treaty with him which the Queen of England desired 
when she sent her servants hither.” 

“But we have no stronger wish than that the King 
should sign that very treaty,” objected Stratford. 

“But my lord’s treaty is not the King’s treaty,” 
the unanswerable reply of the ambassador. 


was 


AN ULTIMATUM. 


207 


“And if the man you desire should go to the Palace, 
and yet refuse to sign the King’s treaty, what then ? ” 
asked Stratford. 

“ It is not for the health of any man to withstand our 
lord the King,” was the evasive answer. 

“But if — if the man was not given up,” broke in the 
agitated voice of Fitz from behind, “ what would happen 
to the lady ? ” 

“ Oh, the woman would die — in a little while,” was the 
instant reply of the Amir, delighted to perceive his oppor- 
tunity. “ Kot by the hands of the King’s executioners — 
that would be a man’s death. Ko ; women can deal with 
women. There are certain in our lord the King’s house- 
hold who bear no love to the doctor lady. I do not say 
that they would kill her ; but she would not live very long 
in their hands — a day, perhaps, or it may be two. And it 
would not be an easy death.” 

“ For God’s sake, Stratford, put a stop to this ! ” 
muttered Dick, hoarsely, his face convulsed with rage. 
“ Tell them I will go.” 

“ Unless,” pursued the Amir, apparently heedless of the 
interruption, although his greedy eyes had not missed the 
slightest change in the expression of any of the faces before 
him, “the woman should find favour in the eyes of our 
lord the King. Then she would live for a time. After- 
wards it would be much the same ; but whether ” 

But the alternative which he had been about to state 
was left unuttered, for Dick sprang forward and dealt him 
a blow which stretched him on the ground. 

“ Say that again if you dare ! ” he growled, standing over 
him with clenched fists; but the Amir, evidently con- 
sidering that discretion was the better part of valour, 
submitted to be helped up and brushed by his attendants, 
after which he retired to the rear, Dick turning con- 


208 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


temptuously on his heel and resuming his post beside 
Stratford. 

“Let not my lord heed the sayings of that man,” 
entreated the old official, “for he has an evil tongue and 
loves to stir up strife.” 

“ Then is what he says not true ? ” asked Stratford, 
sternly. And, divided between a desire to maintain the 
effect produced and the fear of Dick’s fist, the ambassador 
preferred to take refuge in silence. 

“ We will consult together upon the matter and let you 
know our decision presently,” said Stratford, after waiting 
in vain for an answer. “ If you will not enter, the servants 
shall spread carpets at the gate for you.” 

The official expressed his gratitude for the courtesy, and 
the little party of English retired to the inner court in 
silence, a silence which was broken by Fitz as soon as 
they reached the terrace. 

“ What do you intend to do ? ” he demanded of Stratford, 
glaring at him with eyes still full of the horror inspired by 
what he had just heard. 

“ Don’t ask me ! ” said Lady Haigh, taking the question 
as addressed to herself ; and sitting down at the table, she 
began to sob heavily. “ I shall become a gibbering idiot 
if this sort of thing goes on,” she wailed. 

“ I don’t know what you wanted to pretend to discuss 
things for,” said Dick, gruffly. “What’s the good of 
fooling about with consultations when I told you I was 
going 1 ” 

“Excuse me,” said Stratford, “you are quite mistaken. 
I am going.” 

Lady Haigh ceased her sobs and looked at hiTn in aston- 
ishment, while Dick uttered an inarticulate exclamation. 
Fitz alone retained the power of speech. 

“Let me go, Mr Stratford,” he entreated. “Not you; 


AN ULTIMATUM. 


209 


you can’t be spared. My life isn’t of any value ; but every 
one here depends on you in this fix. I would do anything 
for Miss Keeling, and be proud to do it. You will let 
me go, won’t you? It doesn’t signify what happens to 

me.* 

“ Stuff and nonsense, Anstruther ! ” said Stratford, good- 
humouredly. “ There is plenty for you to do yet. Don’t 
you see that when the King has demanded the man in 
authority, he is scarcely likely to be willing to accept you 
instead? You are pretty well known in Kubbet-ul-Haj, 
certainly ; but although Fath-ud-Din might be glad to wel- 
come you as a fellow -victim with me, he would hardly 
regard you with favour as a substitute.” 

“ What are we to do without you, Mr Stratford ? ” asked 
Lady Haigh, piteously. “Sir Dugald left everything in 
your charge.” 

“ We must trust that the King will prove to be less 
bloodthirsty than his ministers,” he answered. “ I am not 
without hopes of making him listen to reason. Still, one 
must prepare for the worst, of course. North, if you will 
come with me to the office a minute, I will give you the 
keys and the seal, and just put you in the way of things a 
little.” 

Dick followed him in silence ; but when they had entered 
the office he shut the door and put his back against it. 

“ Look here, Stratford,” he said, “ you have got to let me 
go. It is my right, I tell you. I — I love her.” 

“ Of course you do,” returned Stratford. “ I have seen 
that for some time. That is why I am glad that you will 
be left to look after her. You will have your work cut out 
for you if you are to get back to Khemistan after this ” 

“ Stratford,” said Dick earnestly, “ listen to me. This is 
my business, and it is very unfriendly of you, though you 
mean well, to try to take it from me. I intend to go.” 

O 


210 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“Excuse me,” said Stratford, “but it is my business 
too. No, I am not hinting at cutting you out, old man — I 
couldn’t do it if I would. My reason for going is totally 
unconnected with Miss Keeling, except in so far as her 
danger has brought things to a climax. I am not going 
to sign Fath-ud-Din’s treaty ; but neither do I intend to 
be killed if I can help it. I shall take our treaty with me, 
and if I leave the Palace alive I shall bring that treaty out 
with me, signed. You will observe that it is not for Miss 
Keeling that I am risking my life, but simply on a matter of 
business. I stake my life against the treaty, and if I keep 
the one I gain the other. Of course, if I fail I lose both. 
Now do you see it 1 ” 

“ But I could look after the treaty just the same,” urged 
Dick. 

“ No, you couldn’t. You are not a diplomatist. North ; 
you are a soldier, and tact is not exactly your strong point. 
I know that you could die like a hero ; but you don’t shine 
in statecraft, and I am anxious that no dying shall be 
necessary, if that is possible. You understand? It is a 
matter of personal moment to me to get this treaty signed, 
and I ask you, as a favour, to waive your claim to sacrifice 
yourself for Miss Keeling.” 

“ Oh, hang it all !” burst forth Dick. “ When you put 
it in that way, Stratford, what can a man do but make 
a fool of himself, and let you go ? It’s my right, and you 
take away from me my only chance of showing her that 
I would die for her, though I can’t manage to please her. 
But we have rubbed through a good deal together, you 
and I — oh, there, you can go.” 

“ Thanks, old man ; I thought I knew your sort. That’s 
settled, then. By the bye, if they should put an end to 
me it is just possible that they might have some one there 
capable of imitating my writing. They must have seen 


AN ULTIMATUM. 


211 


my signature on notes and things of that kind. Well, if 
I sign any treaty you will find the words run into one 
another, so that the Egerton is joined to the Stratford. 
That is the test of genuineness, do you seel” 

“All right.” 

“I leave you in charge of everything here, of course. 
I am very much afraid that Jahan Beg must have come 
to grief, so don’t depend upon him any longer. You won’t 
he able to leave the Mission yourself now, of course ; hut 
if you can get one of the servants to venture, send him oft 
to Fort Eahmat-Ullah. The absence of news ought to have 
put them on the alert, and if they have any sense they will 
he preparing a rescue expedition already; hut you can’t 
count on that. If you see the faintest chance of getting 
every one off safely, I charge you most solemnly to seize 
it at once, without waiting to see what has become of me. 
Such a message as this means war to the knife, and you 
must take any opportunity that offers of an escort, for to 
fight your way through Ethiopia would he an impossibility, 
with the women and the Chief to guard, and no horses. 
Perhaps Hicks might join forces with you, if you approached 
him in a proper spirit, and he would he a real acquisition, 
for he has a good number of armed servants, and has seen 
something of Indian fighting on the Plains. If he doesn’t 
see it, you may have to stand a siege here until relief 
arrives ; hut what you are to do about food I don’t know. 
I can’t attempt to give you directions. All I say is, if the 
worst comes to the worst, leave me and the treaty alone, 
and escape as best you can.” 

“All right,” said Dick again. 

“ Here are the keys. Young Anstruther will show you 
how the papers are arranged. And, by the bye, if I don’t 
come back, send my things to my sister, Mrs Eowcroft, 
Branscombe Vicarage, Homeshire, and tell her how it was. 


212 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


She is the only near relation I have, and we haven’t met 
for nearly twenty years.” 

They left the ofiBce together, and returned to the terrace. 

“ Mayn’t I go, Mr Stratford ? ” cried Fitz, starting up to 
meet them. 

“ Certainly not. I told you that before.” 

Mightn’t I come with you, then 1 We could fight back 
to back, you know.” 

“ ^^^ 0 , thanks. But I will borrow that large old-fashioned 
pistol of yours, if you have no objection. You will prob- 
ably not see it again in any case, so don’t lend it me if it 
is a favourite.” 

Fitz was off immediately, and Stratford turned to Lady 
Haigh. 

“You will think me an unconscionable borrower,” he said, 
“ but there is a miniature revolver of Sir Dugald’s for the 
loan of which I should be most grateful. It is smaller than 
any of ours, and easier to hide.” 

“ I will tell Chanda Lai to look it out at once,” said Lady 
Haigh, and went to find the bearer. 

“ How, Mr Kustendjian, I should like our treaty, please,” 
said Stratford. “You have nearly finished the second copy 
of it, I think?” 

“Nearly,” said the Armenian, whose English seemed 
almost to have forsaken him under the influence of horror. 
“ You will have need of me, Mr Stratford 1 ” 

“ Ho, indeed. I will take no one into danger with me. 
Thank you, Anstruther,” as Fitz reappeared with a large 
brass-mounted pistol “ I will load it simply with powder, 
I think. It will be less dangerous if it should happen to go 
off in my coat-pocket. There ! How does that look ? ” 

“ It sticks out a good deal,” said Fitz, surveying the coat 
critically. “ Any one could see that you had a pistol in that 
pocket. ” 


AN ULTIMATUM. 


213 


“ That is exactly the impression I wish to produce. One 
thing more you can do for me, Anstruther. Just rummage 
among the stores, and see whether you can find any descrip- 
tion of food that has a good deal of nourishment in very 
small compass.” 

Fitz departed again, and presently Lady Haigh returned 
with the little revolver, which Stratford loaded carefully 
and slipped up his left coat-sleeve. Dick and Kustendjian 
watched him curiously and with respect. It was evident 
that he had some plan in his head, but neither of them 
could divine what it was. A minute or two later Fitz came 
up the steps with a box of meat lozenges in his hand, and 
presented it to him. 

“ Will these do, Mr Stratford ? ” he asked. “ They were 
the smallest things I could find. There were tinned soups, 
of course, and chocolate ; hut I thought these would have 
more nourishment in them.” 

“ Quite right,” said Stratford ; “ they are the very thing. 
Is that the treaty, Mr Kustendjian 1 I think my prepara- 
tions are complete, then. You wiU say good-bye to the 
Chief for me when he is better. Lady Haigh 1 ” 

“ Must you go ? ” whispered Lady Haigh, hoarsely, as she 
held his hand. 

“ I must,” he said. “ If I should escape. Sir Dugald's work 
will have been completed. You will like to remember that.” 

“ I shall ride to the Palace with you,” said Dick, as they 
went down the steps. 

“It will be just as well, for you wiU be able to escort 
Miss Keeling back. It would be a pity for them to keep 
her in their hands after all.” 

Another interruption met them as they emerged from the 
archway into the outer court. Waiting for them there, with 
his hand lifted to the salute, was old Ismail Bakhsh the 
gatekeeper, a former trooper of the Khemistan Horse, the 


214 


PEACE WITH HONOUR 


celebrated force to which Dick was attached, and which had 
been raised in the first instance by Georgia’s father, General 
Keeling. 

“ Will my lord tell his servant,” he asked Stratford, 
“ whether it is true what they are saying among the servant- 
people, that my lord goes to the Palace to give his life for 
the doctor lady’s 1 ” 

“ It is true,” answered Stratford. 

“ Let my lord listen to his servant, for it is not fitting 
that my lord should accept death for the sake of one who 
has no claim on him. I served for ten years under Sinjaj 
Kilin the general, and I will go in my lord’s place, because 
I have eaten of Sinjaj Kilin’s salt, and it is not right that 
his daughter should come to shame or harm while Ismail 
Bakhsh lives.” 

“ Your loyalty to your old general is only what I should 
have expected from you, Ismail Bakhsh, but the King 
demands my presence, and not another’s.” 

“ But would my lord sacrifice himself for a woman — and 
that woman not even of his house 1 ” 

“ I would do it for a woman, Ismail Bakhsh, and so 
would any of us, when we would not do it for a man.” 

“ It is the way of the English,” said Ismail Bakhsh, 
thoughtfully, with grieved surprise in his tone. “ That my 
lord should give his life for his lord, the Envoy of the 
Empress, would be no great matter — but for a woman ! ” 

Stratford laughed. 

“ Kot only I, but all three of us, Ismail Bakhsh, would 
have given our lives rather than that a hair of the doctor 
lady’s head should be injured.” 

“ God forbid ! ” said Ismail Bakhsh, piously. ** Let not 
my lord speak such words in the hearing of the scum of the 
earth out yonder, or there wiU be none, either of English 
men or women, to see Khemistan again.” 


AN ULTIMATUM. 


215 


“You observe that, North?” said Stratford. “Any 
undue display of chivalrous sentiments here is likely to 
land you deeper in difficulties, so keep them to yourself. 
Chivalry is at a discount in Kuhhet-ul-Haj.” 

They mounted their horses, and accompanied the ambas- 
sadors back to the Palace, half-a-dozen armed servants 
following them, in case the King should show a disposition 
to claim Dick’s life as well as that of Stratford in exchange 
for Georgia. When the greater part of the journey had 
been accomplished, and the frowning walls of the Palace 
courtyard were just in sight, they met the well-known 
procession of slaves and soldiers guarding the litter, which 
had so often come to the Mission to fetch the doctor lady. 

“ Evidently they sent off a swift messenger to tell them 
that we accepted the terms, and the King is anxious to 
show that he confides in our good faith,” said Stratford. 
“ Funny mixture, isn’t he ? Well, you will turn back here, 
North, I suppose? There is no particular use in your 
coming on further.” 

“ Let me go instead of you,” entreated Dick once more. 

“ My dear fellow, haven’t I wasted enough breath on you 
yet ? I thought we had threshed all that out long ago, and 
that you were quite convinced. By the hye, now that we 
are abreast of the litter, it might be as well for you to make 
sure that Miss Keeling really is inside. It would be 
irritating to be fooled now.” 

Doggedly Dick pushed his way through the guards, and 
raised the curtain of the litter, in spite of the loud protests 
of the slaves. He was fully prepared for' a trick ; but the 
eyes which looked up at him through the lattice-work of 
the hurka were unmistakably Georgia’s, and it was undeni- 
ably Kahah who flung herself forward to draw the curtain 
close again, with a shrill rebuke to the slaves for letting 
some drunken wretch approach the litter. 


216 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“Why, Major North, is it you?” asked Georgia, in 
astonishment. “Is anything the matter?’^ 

“ Not much — not exactly,” he stammered. “ I — he — we 
fancied it might be safer if I turned up to escort you 
home.” 

“It was very kind of you,” said Georgia, gratefully, 
“We had rather a fright at the Palace ; but I will tell you 
about it presently.” 

“ Yes — very well,” he muttered incoherently, and, draw- 
ing the curtain again, turned to Stratford ; but his lips 
refused to perform their office. Stratford held out his 
hand. 

“ Good-bye, old man,” he said. “God help you with the 
job you will have in hand now.” 

“ God bless you, Stratford !” hurst from Dick. “I wish 
with all my soul that I was in your place at this moment.” 

He wrung Stratford’s hand, and turned silently to follow 
the litter with the servants, while the ambassadors and 
their prisoner rode on towards the Palace. 

“How shall I ever tell her?” was the question which 
agitated Dick’s mind as they neared the Mission. He knew 
enough of Georgia to feel sure that, if she been made 
acquainted with the terms of the King’s ultimatum, she 
would promptly have gone back to the Palace, and refused 
to allow any one else to he sacrificed for her, and he quailed 
under the anticipated necessity of informing her of what 
had been done. But he was saved this duty, for as he 
entered the Mission courtyard Mr Hicks came hurrying to 
meet him. 

“Well, Major,” he exclaimed, “the King has been play- 
ing it pretty low down on you, I guess. I’m always glad to 
look on at a fair fight, and it don’t so much matter to me 
which of the chaps gives the other beans so long as every- 
thing is done on the square. But when it comes to getting 


AN ULTIMATUM. 


217 


hold of a woman, and by threatening to torture her, 
working on a man’s highest feelings to make him give 
himself up instead, you may bet largely that I don’t stand 
in with doings of that stamp — no, sir ! The moment I 
heard a rumour of what was going on I made my darkies 
fly around, and in just half no time I had everything fixed 
up to come here. You may count on me as a fair shot with 
a Winchester or a six-shooter if it comes to fighting, and if 
old Fath-ud-Din and I catch sight of each other, one of us 
is bound to send in his checks, or I’ll never look a woman 
in the face again. Your nation and mine are not always 
sweet to each other, sir ; but if there’s any question of a 
woman in danger, you may count upon Jonathan to the 
last drop of his blood.” 

Much obliged,” muttered Dick ; but under his breath 
he grumbled, “I wish that voice of yours wasn’t quite 
so loud.” 

Georgia was being helped out of the litter at the moment, 
and as she reached the ground she cast a quick, apprehen- 
sive glance about her. Her hand was on Dick’s arm ; Fitz 
was coming through the archway, and Kustendjian was 
visible on the verandah of the Durbar-hall. Ismail Bakhsh 
and his subordinates stood by the gate, looking at her with 
disapproving eyes, silent and grim, and her mind filled up 
in a moment the gaps in Mr Hicks’ speech. A sob broke 
from her as she stood gazing from one to the other ; then 
her hand dropped from Dick’s arm, and, gathering her bwrka 
around her, she passed on into the inner court. Dick 
followed, with a vague notion of saying something to 
comfort her ; but at the foot of the steps she turned and 
faced him. 

“ You let Mr Stratford go to the Palace in exchange for 
me — you let him 1 ” she asked sharply, and waited for his 
answer with breathless anxiety. 


218 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ I tried to prevent him — he would go,” stammered Dick. 

■ “ You let him sacrifice himself to save me 1 If anything 

happens to him I will never, never speak to you again as 
long as I live ! ” and she turned her back on him and 
fled up the steps. He stood looking after her, stupefied. 

“ She cares for him, and I never guessed it,” he muttered 
to himself. “ I might have saved him for her, and I have 
let him go and get himself killed by those fiends yonder ! ” 


CHAPTER XV. 

ONE CROWDED HOUR. 

Thioughout that long day, Dick worked with feverish 
activity at anything that offered itself as an outlet for his 
energies, without cherishing the least hope that his friend’s 
sanguine anticipations of a possible change for the better in 
the attitude of the King and Fath-ud-Din would be realised. 
It was his opinion that the worst had come to the worst, 
and that as soon as Stratford had met his death at the 
Palace, a general attack upon the Mission premises would 
take place, with the view of making it appear that all the 
members of the expedition had been murdered in a popular 
tumult. With this cheering prospect in view, he prepared 
the building for defence, instructed the servants afresh as 
to their respective duties in case of an assault, and placed 
the stands of arms where their contents could most readily 
be seized on an emergency. Fearing that an attempt might 
be made to starve the Mission into a surrender, he bought 
up all the provisions which the country-people brought in, 


ONE CEOWDED HOUR. 


219 


and even induced them by liberal pa3’’ments to sell him a 
supply of corn which they had intended to dispose of in the 
city market. 

Having thus made preparations for resisting a siege as 
well as a sudden assault, he was forced by his very need of 
occupation to take somewhat wider views, and to consider 
the improbable possibility of evacuating the place safely. 
Accordingly he summoned Ismail Bakhsh, and, setting 
before him the facts of the case, asked whether he would 
undertake the dangerous task of conveying a message to 
Fort Eahmat-UUah. He did not attempt to minimise the 
risks to he incurred ; hut the old soldier was faithful to his 
salt, and consented to attempt the journey in disguise. His 
trained eye had enabled him to observe the features of the 
route traversed on the journey to more purpose than his 
younger companions had done, and he was persuaded that 
if he were once safely outside the walls he could make his 
way to the frontier without much difficulty — provided, of 
course, that his absence was not discovered, and a hue and 
cry set on foot. A certain addition to his pension in case of 
his success, and compensation to his family if he was killed, 
were agreed upon, and Ismail Bakhsh retired, leaving Dick 
to face the inaction which he had been combating all day. 

He could not think of anything else to do, beyond going 
the round of the walls at absurdly short intervals and seeing 
that the servants were keeping a good look-out; and the 
more personal troubles, which he had been trying to keep at 
bay, crowded upon him and would not he put aside. The 
*day had cost him both his friend and the woman whom he 
loved — and who loved that friend. The miserable irony of 
the situation seemed to mock him afresh whenever he tried 
to face it. Georgia loved Stratford, and Stratford had gone 
to his death to save her — yet not because he loved her, but 
because he saw in the action a chance of doing a good stroke 


220 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


of business — while he, who would willingly have died for 
Georgia’s sake, remained alive, to meet the grief and anger 
which she would naturally feel at his having allowed his 
friend to sacrifice himself for her. 

Wretched as the outlook appeared to Dick, however, it is 
a question whether it was not even more dreary for Georgia, 
since his conscience was clear, and hers was not. She could 
not rid herself of the conviction that if she had done as 
Lady Haigh advised, and declined to go to the Palace without 
first consulting Stratford, he might even now be free and in 
comparative safety, while if he had given her leave to go, 
she would not have had herself to reproach for his untoward 
fate. It was so unlike her usual practice to act on the 
impulse of a moment of irritation, as she had done in this 
case, that she asked herself what could have made her refuse 
so decidedly even to communicate to the gentlemen her in- 
tention of visiting her patient. She had not far to seek for 
an answer. It was Dick whose opposition she had feared. 
She had been so obstinately determined not to appear in 
the slightest degree willing to ask either his opinion or his 
advice, after the words he had uttered in the heat of their 
discussion, that she had sacrificed his friend and hers to her 
wounded pride. 

Hor was the realisation of this fact her sole punishment. 
Whatever Dick might think, she had no illusions as to the 
frame of mind in which Stratford had gone to the Palace. 
His story she had early heard from Lady Haigh, with the 
addition of the significant remark that he was never likely 
to marry now, and it had given her a distinct thrill of pleas- 
ure when she found that this faithful lover was willing to 
be her friend on the footing she liked best. The greater 
number of her medical confreres in London, and of the many 
men whose friendship she had gained and kept since her 
hospital days, had been content to accept her terms and to 


ONE CROWDED HOUR. 


221 


meet her on the equal ground of comradeship. Some there 
had been, as Mabel had told Dick, who were anxious to go 
further, and had been courteously though firmly repulsed ; 
but Stratford was not one of these. He had made a friend 
of her as if she had been a man, she thought, and he had 
sacrificed himself for her in exactly the spirit he would have 
exhibited if Lady Haigh had been in danger, and not Miss 
Keeling. She knew well enough that there was no personal 
feeling whatever in his case, but it was different with Dick. 
Why had he allowed Stratford to go instead of going him- 
self? He did care for her — at least, she had begun to 
think so until his plain speaking of a week ago had created 
the breach between them. But now she was on the horns 
of a dilemma. Either he could not care for her, since he 
had left it to another man to give his life to save hers, or 
else, if he did care for her, he was a coward who was willing 
to shelter himself behind the other man’s self-sacrifice. But 
Dick’s past record was sufficient to put the latter supposition 
beyond the bounds of possibility, and Georgia was thrown 
back upon the former. He could not care for her, and she 
cared for him. To the woman whose heart had never been 
touched before, the thought was almost unendurable in the 
shame it brought with it. 

And she had sent Stratford to his death ! What would 
there have been in the slight humiliation — more fancied 
than real, after all — involved in asking his leave as head 
of the party before quitting the Mission, compared with 
the overwhelming remorse and misery which now oppressed 
her ? She recalled the threats launched against herself by 
Antar Khan’s mother, and sobbed and shuddered at the 
thought that the tortures of which the mere mention had 
been considered sufficient to terrify herself were now being 
infiicted on another, and by her fault. Lady Haigh, who 
came wandering in and out of her room like a restless ghost, 


222 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


could offer her no comfort, since the best they could hope for 
was that Stratford was dead already, cut down by the guard 
in some conflict provoked by himself, and that he had thus 
died without either torture or indignity. The two women 
could not endure to talk, could not even pray ; they could 
only weep in concert and exchange half-uttered surmisings 
which were worse than certainties. 

The day wore away, and Mr Hicks, who had spent the 
greater part of it busily and happily in passing all the rifles 
in review, cleaning them and adjusting the mechanism, came 
to Dick, as he sat brooding gloomily over the state of affairs 
in the office, and represented mildly but firmly that the 
whole party would be the better for some dinner. - He had 
put up with the absence of tiffin under the painful circum- 
stances of his visit, he said ; but he could not see that 
because one poor fellow had got wiped out all the rest must 
necessarily starve. Thus reminded that he had taken no 
food since breakfast-time, Dick awoke to a perception of 
the duties of hospitality, and apologising to Mr Hicks for 
the inconvenience and discomfort to which he had been 
subjected, ordered the meal to be served at the usual hour. 
It was a very small and lugubrious company that met in the 
dining-room. Dick had sent a message to the ladies, asking 
whether they would appear at table,, but no answer was re- 
turned ; and Mr Hicks was the only person who possessed 
an appetite. He did his best to worry his hosts into eating 
something, but he was not very successful ; and at last Fitz 
left the table suddenly, muttering something about the flag, 
which he feared had not, in the general confusion, been 
hauled down as usual at sunset. As the noise of his hurry- 
ing footsteps on the stones of the terrace died away, another 
sound became audible — the blare and din of native music, 
the shrill cries of triumph of women, and the approaching 
tread of a multitude 


ONE CROWDED HOUR. 


223 


“ It’s coming at last ! ” cried Dick, springing up from his 
seat and buckling on his sword. “You know your post, 
Hicks?” 

“Wait a minute. Major,” said Mr Hicks. Doesn’t it 
strike you that this is rather a new way of conducting an 
attack ? ” 

“ Why, what else could it he 1 ” asked Dick. 

The American turned aside, and would not meet his eye 
as he answered — 

“Well, if they have put an end to the poor fellow, I 
would bet my last red cent that they would carry his 
remains about in procession to show the people — to show 
us, too, for the matter of that — and it won’t be a pretty 
sight for the ladies to see, any way.” 

“ Good gracious, no ! ” cried Dick. “ Say nothing to 
them at present, Hicks. We will just order the servants 
to their posts without troubling the ladies, and then watch 
from the gate and see what happens.” 

They went down into the outer courtyard, sent the 
servants to their appointed places without any noise or 
confusion, and took their stand at the window over the 
gateway, where they were joined by Fitz and Kustendjian. 
They stood there, waiting breathlessly, for some minutes, 
each man’s hand on his weapon, while behind them the 
fierce eyes and gleaming blades of Ismail Bakhsh and his 
subordinates reflected the glare of the torches which were 
now beginning to appear at the end of the winding street. 
Hearer and nearer came the crowd, apparently all mad with 
joy, leaping, dancing, tearing off clothes and flinging them 
on the ground, waving torches, shouting, singing, and yell- 
ing. Some looked up at the window as they passed it, and 
it seemed to the little band of white men standing there 
that their gestures became intolerably derisive, and that 
their faces took on a fiendish grin as they massed them- 


224 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


selves in the street beyond the Mission and waited — in 
so far as those still pressing upon them from behind would 
allow them to wait. Dick felt his heart thumping against 
his ribs ; he was aware that Kustendjian had sat down in 
a corner and hidden his face from the horror he expected 
to see, that Fitz was leaning against the wall with white 
lips and staring eyes, and that Mr Hicks was uttering 
spasmodic exhortations at momentary intervals — “Steady, 
hoys ! Keep up ; don’t let ’em see you wilt. Never give 
in ! ” — such as bespoke rather, perhaps, the turmoil of his 
own mind than his estimate of the state of feeling of his 
companions. 

“ Soldiers ! ” murmured some one, and a squadron of 
cavalry defiled slowly past, saluting as they came level 
with the window — a piece of mockery for which Dick 
cursed them in his heart. Then more torches, more 
musical instruments, more excited people, banners, dancing- 
girls, gliding and posturing 'to the sounds of the music, 
with their long coloured scarfs twirled daintily on the tips 
of their outspread fingers ; and then two men riding alone, 
wearing robes of honour. As they reached the gate they 
paused and waited ; then one of them looked up, and in 
tones of extreme calmness addressed the group at the 
window. 

“You don’t mean to keep me here all night. North, 
do you 1 Mr Anstruther, I give you my word of honour 
that I am not a ghost yet.” 

How they got down the stairs and opened the gate none 
of them ever knew, but in another minute Stratford was 
among them, unhurt, and indulging in a little chaff by 
way of maintaining his own composure. 

“ I wonder you didn’t shoot me when I looked up just 
now, North. If ever I saw murder in a man’s eye, I 
saw it in yours then. Mr Hicks, you have as keen a 


ONE CROWDED HOUR. 


225 


scent for a battle as any vulture. The way you turn up 
when you think we are likely to be in trouble is positively 
pathetic. I have some further use for my arm, Anstruther, 
if you have finished wringing my hand off. Peace be with 
you, Ismail Bakhsh ! I fear you are disappointed that 
there is to be no fighting to-night?” 

“ My lord is pleased to jest,” said Ismail Bakhsh, re- 
provingly, as he directed the closing of the gate. The 
processionists outside had turned back, and were marching 
homewards amid a fresh outburst of minstrelsy, with the 
man who had accompanied Stratford at their head. No 
one thought of asking who he was, nor, indeed, of paying 
the slightest attention to affairs outside, as Stratford was 
assisted, quite unnecessarily, to dismount, and escorted 
through the archway into the inner court. But he was 
not to arrive altogether unheralded. Brought to his senses 
by Stratford’s commonplace greeting, Fitz had dashed 
across the court and up to the terrace, the only man who 
remembered in the excitement of the moment that the 
joyful news ought not to be allowed to burst suddenly 
upon the ladies. The fresh hope in his voice — a hope 
to which they had been strangers for what seemed inter- 
minable hours — roused them from their lethargy of grief, 
and they came out into the verandah with tear-stained 
faces and ruffled hair, both looking as though they had 
cried until they could cry no more. 

“ Good news. Lady Haigh ! ” panted Fitz. “ Miss Keel- 
ing, they haven’t murdered him after aU. He is not a bit 
hurt He will be here in a minute. He’s here now ! ” 

This method of breaking the news, though strictly 
gradual, could scarcely be called gentle, and Lady Haigh 
and Georgia stood staring at Fitz without understanding 
him in the least. Seeing this, he tried a new plan, the 
first that recommended itself to his excited mind. 

P 


226 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Aren’t you going to put on your best things to 
greet the hero in, Miss Keeling ^ He’s dressed up to 
the eyes himself. You never saw such a get-up — most 
awfully swagger. You will never he able to keep him in 
countenance.” 

“ Oh, you absurd boy ! ” cried Georgia, and she sat 
down at the top of the steps and laughed wildly. 

“ Fetch me a jug of water, Mr. Anstruther,” said Lady 
Haigh, sternly. “ You are getting into a way of going 
into hysterics, Georgia, and I mean to break you of it. 
This is the second time I have caught you at it since we 
came to Kubbet-ul-Haj, and it’s not professional” 

“Professional?” echoed Georgia, beginning to laugh 
again ; “ it is the circumstances that are unprofessional, not 
I. Besides, I am not in the least hysterical. Thank you 
— a little water— please — Mr Anstruther.” 

The water, applied internally, and not as Lady Haigh 
had intended, proved efficacious, and when Stratford and 
the rest approached the terrace, Georgia had recovered 
her composure. She met Stratford as he mounted the 
steps, and held out her hand to him. Dick, seeing the 
action, turned his eyes away, and listened in sick terror 
for what would follow. After all, Stratford had the right 
to win her now if he chose to exercise it. But if he did 
not choose ? Would he humiliate Georgia by repulsing her 
before them all? But Dick need not have been afraid. 
Even his jealous ear could detect in her tones merely 
the amount of feeling natural and unavoidable under the 
circumstances, although her eyes were swimming with 
tears as she said — 

“I can never thank you enough for what you have 
done to-day, Mr Stratford. If I don’t seem as grateful 
as I ought to be, you must only think that I can’t blame 
myself properly for my foolishness and obstinacy in going 


ONE CROWDED HOUR. 


221 


to the Palace without leave as I did, since it gave you 
the opportunity of doing such a deed of heroism.” 

Every word went to Dick’s heart, as, alas ! it was meant 
to do. He waited anxiously to hear Stratford say that 
he had gone to the Palace merely as a speculation of 
his own, and that Miss Keeling had had very little to 
do with the matter, hut the words did not come. Stratford 
was not the man to hurt a woman’s feelings gratuitously 
by an uncalled-for rebuff, however true its nature, and 
he answered at once — 

“You are too kind. Miss Keeling. I assure you that 
there was an eager competition for the honour of helping 
you out of your little predicament. Anstruther was bent 
on going ; and as for Korth, I had to keep him back almost 
by main force. He was only restrained at last by a com- 
bination of definite orders, personal entreaties, and solemn 
assurances that my going was for the greater good of the 
Mission.” 

Georgia’s eyes were raised to Dick’s for a moment, and 
the expression in them said, “You might have told me ! ” 
But his eyes met hers with a steady hostility, which re- 
vived all the bitter feelings which had tormented her 
during the day. 

“I am afraid I did you an injustice, then. Major Korth,” 
she remarked, sweetly. “You must take into account 
the circumstances of the moment, and kindly forgive my 
hasty words. I am only a woman, you know.” 

Dick bit his lip, and tried hard to think of something 
cutting to say. Was it fair that this woman, who had 
treated him so unfairly — no, not unfairly, cruelly — well, not 
exactly cruelly, slightingly — no, not that, carelessly, perhaps 
— should also have the power of making him writhe in this 
way ? And he loved her ! He had even told Stratford so ! 
How Stratford must be laughing at him in his sleeve at 


228 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


this moment ! All this passed through his mind as he 
stood staring dumbly at Georgia until Lady Haigh, who 
had caught the look in his eyes, pushed her gently aside, 
and addressed herself to the hero of the occasion. 

“And you escaped without signing their treaty she 
asked. 

“ I did not sign it, certainly,” he replied. 

“ And what about our treaty 1 ” asked Fitz, eagerly. 

“ There is our treaty — signed,” returned Stratford, with a 
(^ueer gleam in his eyes as he laid the parchment on the 
table. “When the Chief gets better he will find that 
his work was not all in vain. Lady Haigh.” 

Lady Haigh blushed afterwards to remember that she 
was ready to kiss Stratford there and then in the first flush 
of her delight at the news ; but she restrained herself 
sufficiently to do no more than wring his hand without 
a word. The rest were examining the treaty, which bore 
Stratford^s signature and another, as well as the King's 
seal and that of the Grand Vizier. 

“ But that is not Fath-ud-Din’s signature,” said Kustend- 
jian, who was looking at the parchment from the other side 
of the table. 

“Ho,” said Stratford, drily; “it is Jahan Beg'a” 

Jahan Beg’s ? ” was echoed, in tones of astonishment. 

“Yes; he has succeeded Fath-ud-Din as Grand Vizier. 
You have a good deal to hear ; but I should like some 
dinner first, if there is any going.” 

“Have you had nothing but meat lozenges all day, Mr 
Stratford ? ” asked Fitz, laughing ; and every one adjourned 
to the dining-room, where the dishes, which had been 
left untasted half an hour before, were still on the table. 
Everything was cold, of course, and the servants were in 
despair ; but the makeshift meal was the most cheerful that 
had taken place during the whole sojourn of the Mission in 


ONE CROWDED HOUR. 


229 


Kubbet-ul-Haj, and when it was over, the party returned to 
the terrace, and demanded clamorously of Stratford that he 
should tell his story. 

“It is rather long, and I am afraid you will find it a 
little tedious,” he said, throwing away his cigarette; “but 
I can assure you that the experience was much more 
tedious to go through than to talk about. Well, no 
attempt was made to molest me when I got to the Palace, 
and I started off as usual in the direction of the hall of 
audience. Generally, as you know, when we have gone to 
the Palace, there have been a lot of chamberlains and fellows 
to clear a path for us and bring us to the King, but to-day 
I had to elbow my way through the crowd that was 
hanging about. It was a sign that times were changed ; 
but that wasn’t all, for, before I had got half-way through 
the mob, I felt a pull at my coat-tail, and when I could 
put my hand there, I found that I had been eased of 
my pistol. However, as I had put the pistol into that 
pocket for the express purpose of having it seen and stolen, 
I didn’t mind much. When I got to the door of the 
audience -chamber, the guard made a fuss about letting 
me in; but I said that the King had sent for me, and I 
meant to see him. When they saw that I would stand 
no nonsense, they let me pass, and I found the King and 
Fath-ud-Din, as I had hoped, in the room in which they 
had tried to bribe the Chief to sign their treaty. It is 
quite small, you remember, and the walls are solid, without 
any of the lattice-work panels you see in the big hall. The 
windows are high up, and all the open carving is of stone, 
and not of wood. It was another score for me that the 
King thought fit to treat me as a criminal, and didn’t 
invite me to come close to him, so I chose my position, 
and camped in the comer in a line with the door, and 
opposite to the King’s divan. Of course this was nominally 


230 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


in order that what we said should not he overheard outside. 
They brought in coffee ; but I refused to taste it, for I 
didn’t see any advantage in being poisoned at the very 
outset, and there was no object in keeping on the mask 
of friendliness any longer.” 

“Wait a minute,” said Dick. “How did you manage 
everything without an interpreter?” 

“ I got out my best Ethiopian for the occasion, and when 
that failed we had recourse to Arabic,” returned Stratford. 
“ The King and Fath-ud-Din can both talk it pretty well 
when they like, as you know. Well, when war had once 
been declared by my refusing the coffee, we sat for hours 
arguing. It was intimated to me pretty clearly at the 
beginning that if I didn’t sign their treaty, I should not 
leave the Palace alive ; but when they saw that that didn’t 
seem to affect me to any appreciable extent, they began 
to add inducements on the other side. They offered me 
money and precious stones — quite a comfortable little 
fortune, I should think — rising by degrees until either 
their tempers or their purses gave way. Then, evidently 
thinking that my obstinacy arose from a fear that the rest of 
you would split upon me, they offered to put every one else 
belonging to the Mission out of the way, and to send 
me back to Khemistan as a conquering hero, returning 
with the best treaty I could manage to obtain. When 
they found that wouldn’t do, they offered me Jahan Beg’s 
office and property if I would only sign. I was to dis- 
appear from the ken of mortals outside Ethiopia, of course, 
and they would represent that the Mission had all been car- 
ried off by a pestilence, leaving only the treaty behind them. 
Their ideas as to English credulity are distinctly Arcadian. 
Well, all this time the servants kept bringing in sweetmeats 
and sherbet and fruit ; but I would not touch anything, 
though I was abominably thirsty, for I remembered what 


ONE CROWDED HOUR. 


231 


Miss Keeling had said about some poison that destroyed 
the will, and I didn’t want to be hocussed into signing. 
Then they started on a fresh tack, and had in a crowd 
of dancing-girls ” 

“ The temptation of St Egerton ! ” cried Eitz, hugely 
delighted. “Were they very fascinating, Mr Stratford?” 

“ You might possibly have found them so,” returned 
Stratford, coolly ; “ hut my tastes don’t happen to lie in 
that direction. I endured their performances for some 
time, and then they began to get tiresome. It was rather 
hard on the poor things, I know, for they were doing their 
level best ; but I yawned aggressively, and suggested that 
we should go hack to business. They bundled the girls 
out, and I found that the King and Eath-ud-Din had about 
reached the end of their patience. They took to threats 
now, and discoursed movingly for some time on the subject 
of tortures, with a strictly personal application. Fath-ud- 
Din did most of the talking ; hut when the King thought 
that his language was lacking in vigour, he added a few 
stronger touches to the picture. At last I remarked that 
this was all very interesting, hut it wasn’t business, and 
that set them off. The King stamped on the floor, and 
immediately the curtain over the door was pulled aside, 
and a gang of the most villainous-looking negroes I ever 
saw filed in. ‘ Seize that white devil,’ said Eath-ud-Din, 
‘ and let our lord the King behold your skill.’ That was 
all very well, hut there were two sides to the question. 

‘ Stop,’ I said to the foremost black fellow as he turned 
towards me — * cross that line in the floor at your peril ! ’ 
He laughed. I believe they thought I meant to take it 
fighting ; hut that was not my game at all. In a rough- 
and-tumble fight with those niggers I should have gone 
under in no time, and I didn’t exactly see being pulled to 
pieces with red-hot pincers to make a holiday for the King 


232 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


and Fatli-ud-Din. I had slipped the little revolver down 
my sleeve and into my right hand, and I had some extra 
cartridges in my left, and as the man set his foot on the line 
I had pointed at, I shot him straight off. It was rather a 
strong thing to do ; but it was my only chance. The other 
black fellows drew back as the first man fell forward on his 
face, his arms almost touching the King, and Fath-ud-Din 
opened his mouth to yell out to the guard ; but I spoke 
first, slipping in another cartridge into the chamber I had 
fired. * I have six shots here without reloading,’ I said. 

‘ The next two are for the King and the Grand Vizier, as 
soon as either of them moves or speaks ; the rest are for 
the first four men that cross this line.’ ” 

“ Sir,” said Mr Hicks, approvingly, “ there was a dreadful 
smart newspaper man lost when you were raised for a 
diplomatist.” 

Stratford smiled in acknowledgment of the compliment, 
which was delivered with even more than the amount of 
drawl which Mr Hicks chose usually to affect. 

WeU, there was a moment’s pause,” he went on, 
“which I utilised in surveying the position. I had the 
King within easy range, with Fath-ud-Din standing beside 
him, and to reach the door they would have to pass me. 
I was in the corner, so that even if the guard came in they 
could only reach me in front. Of course they could have 
floored me easily if the black fellows had come at me in a 
body; but it would have been the last fight for two or 
three of them, and they knew it and kept quiet. The only 
danger was that they might fire at me from the door or 
from the outside of one of the windows when the guard 
found out what had happened, and I saw that if I was to 
get off we must come to terms before any one in the great 
hall suspected anything. AVhat they made of the sound of 
my revolver-shot I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem to have 


ONE CROWDED HOUR. 


23.3 


struck them as anything suspicious ; perhaps they thought 
that tl .e King was amusing himself with practising shooting 
at me. Ko one appeared, at any rate, and I spoke to the 
King again. ‘ Before we do anything further,’ I said, ‘ I 
should be glad to know where Jahan Beg is.’ Fath-ud-Din 
instantly replied with great gusto that he was expiating his 
crimes in the King’s deepest dungeon, which he would never 
leave alive. I remarked that it was just possible some one 
in that room might die sooner than Jahan Beg did, which 
made him calm down a little, and then I asked the King 
what crime Jahan Beg had committed. He did not fly out 
as Fath-ud-Din had done, hut told me quite quietly that it 
was unwise in me to inquire after the traitor who had done 
his best to deliver Ethiopia into our hands. I asked what he 
meant (of course I kept my eyes about me and the revolver 
ready all this time), and he told me a very circumstantial 
story, the recital of which was intended to cover me with 
confusion. It seemed that Fath-ud-Din, as soon as the 
Chief had definitely refused to gratify him by extraditing 
Jahan Beg on account of some imaginary c rime, told the 
King that he had strong reason to suspect his rival of 
intriguing with us. He was sure he was an Englishman, 
and he believed that he was plotting with the English to 
dethrone the King and put Rustam Khan in his place. 
The King was loath to suspect Jahan Beg, and particularly 
anxious not to have to find a substitute for him in the 
frontier work which he alone could do ; but the Vizier 
was so positive that he consented to set spies to watch 
him. Of course they saw him come to us at night and 
found out that he was supplying us *Vith corn, so he was 
promptly arrested and thrown into prison, and the charge 
considered proved.” 

“ You must have been pretty well stumped at that,” 
said Dick. “ It was a mad thing for J ahan Beg to 


234 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


continue to come here as he did when he knew that 
Fath-ud-Din suspected him.” 

Yes,” said Stratford; “ my only chance was a sudden 
attack by means of a tu quoque. ^ Yes,’ I said, ‘ Jahan Beg 
is an Englishman, and he came to the Mission to visit the 
Envoy, who was an old friend of his. But he did not 
come with any view of interfering in public matters. He 
has never sought to engage our help in placing Eustam 
Khan upon the throne, nor in making any change in the 
government of Ethiopia, and we should not have granted it 
if he had. In fact, his coming was so entirely unofficial 
that we did not even take advantage of his visits to the 
Mission to seek his assistance in the negotiations which the 
Grand Vizier was carrying on with us at the time. When 
Fath-ud-Din used to visit the Envoy by night, and even 
when he came to try and arrange the secret agreement about 
Antar Khan’s succession to the throne, we did not invite 
Jahan Beg to be present, because we knew that the matter 
was not intended to be made public, and we feared to pro- 
duce the impression that our friend was endeavouring to 
thrust himself uninvited into the King’s counsels.’ I saw 
in a moment that the shot had. told. The King turned and 
glared at Fath-ud-Din, and then again at me. ‘What!’ he 
cried. ‘Fath-ud-Din desired to set my son Antar Khan 
upon my throne % ’ ‘ He came merely to attempt to secure 

the support of her Majesty’s Government for the Prince in 
case that should happen which England and Ethiopia would 
alike deplore,’ I said, as soothingly as I could; but the 
King was not mollified. ‘ He sought to obtain assurance of 
English support in case of my death % ’ he cried. ‘Yes,’ 
said I ; ‘ and when we refused to enter into the arrange- 
ment, saying that the matter was one for the King and his 
Amirs to settle among themselves, he threatened that he 
would seek the assistance we denied him from the Envoy of 


ONE CROWDED HOUR. 


235 


Scythia, whD would not refuse it. Is it possible that he was 
not acting on behalf of your Majesty, after alH ’ ‘ Fath-ud- 
Din,’ said the King, ‘are the words of the Englishman true!’ 
‘ 0 my lord,’ said the old villain, flopping down on his face 
before the divan in an awful fright, ‘the Englishman’s 
tongue is forked. He seeks to save himself from the fate 
he merits by casting dirt upon the name of the meanest of 
my lord’s servants ; but he shall yet eat his words.’ ‘ The 
matter is in the hands of the King to prove,’ I said ; ‘ let 
him send and fetch Jahan Beg straight here from his dun- 
geon, and let him be questioned as to all that has taken 
place. It is evident that he cannot have held communica- 
tion with any member of the Mission since his arrest, and if 
his words agree with mine, mine must be seen to be true; if 
not, then let us both pay the penalty.’ The King seemed to 
think it rather a good idea, and was inclined to agree ; but 
Eath-ud-Din interposed all sorts of objections as he lay 
grovelling on the floor, and at last I got tired. Some slave 
or chamberlain might have come in at any moment and 
spoilt everything. So I took out my box of lozenges, and 
said, ‘ In this box I have food for several days, so that I 
can remain here without inconvenience. The King and 
Eath-ud-Din have no food, and cannot pass me to leave the 
room ; therefore I would recommend that they follow my 
advice.’ The King saw the reason of it, and called one of 
the black fellows, whom he ordered to fetch Jahan Beg at 
once, without saying anything about what had been going 
on. You may judge that in spite of this I kept the revolver 
ready in case of any attempt to rush me; but none was 
made. I think the King felt that it was necessary to get to 
the bottom of the matter, for he even invited me to come 
and sit beside him ; but I refused, ‘ until my words were 
proved true,’ as I said. I don’t know whether Eath-ud-Din 
or I felt the more uncomfortable when the messenger was 


236 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


gone, for it struck me that Jahan Beg might think it advis- 
able not to tell the exact truth, in which case I should find 
myself badly left ; but I made a great parade of eating one 
of the lozenges, and I hope I dissembled my uneasiness 
better than the Vizier did. Happily, when poor old Jahan 
Beg was brought in — a perfect shadow, wasted and ill, and 
ragged, and chained — he gathered the significance of the 
questions the King asked him at once, and confirmed 
exactly what I had said, being able to corroborate my 
account of the Vizier’s earlier visits to the Mission. Of 
course, he did not know anything of the Antar Khan 
business, which did not happen until after his arrest ; hut 
I had an inspiration there. I suggested an examination of 
Fath-ud-Din’s servants, with the view of discovering whether 
he had really held communication with the Scythian agent 
and with us. The King jumped at the idea, and improved 
upon it by ordering a search of his house as well. I 
thought that it was not likely to be much good ; but I was 
mistaken, for his scribe, on being arrested, displayed such 
great anxiety to be allowed to take his copy of the Koran 
to prison with him that suspicion was excited, and in the 
cover of it they found concealed a written promise from the 
Scythian agent, pledging his Government to support Antar 
Khan in case of the King’s death, and to pay Fath-ud-Din 
eight thousand pounds in return for his getting their treaty 
signed. The greedy old beast must have had the paper in 
his possession when he came to us this morning — was it 
really only this morning 'i — and tried to get us to outbid 
him by two thousand pounds. It was exactly the evidence 
we wanted, and its discovery is only another warning never 
to commit compromising agreements to writing.” 

“ Yes ; and then*?” asked Fitz, eagerly, seeing that Strat- 
ford appeared inclined to moralise. 

“ Then 1 Why, a grand transformation scene, of course 


A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 


237 


Fath-ud-Din’s signet was taken from him, and he was con- 
ducted to the dungeon which Jahan Beg had just vacated. 
Jahan Beg was taken to the bath, and rigged out at the 
King’s expense, and formally invested with the Grand 
Vizier’s signet. He was another man after a little care and 
attention. As for me, I was favoured with a seat by the 
King’s side, publicly thanked for exposing a traitor and 
saving the King (evidently he held the same opinion as to 
his chances of life under Fath-ud-Din’s fostering care that 
we did), and asked whether I had a copy of our treaty at 
hand. That was the crowning moment. I produced the 
treaty from inside my coat. Jahan Beg signed it — his first 
act in his new capacity — I followed, and the King put his 
seal to it. And that is all.” 

“And now?” asked Lady Haigh. 

“ Kow we have only to get back to Khemistan as fast as 
we can,” said Stratford. 


CHAPTER XVL 

A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 

If, after Stratford had told his story, the party at the 
Mission had been informed that the most anxious portion 
of their stay in Kubbet-ul-Haj was still to come, the idea 
would have seemed absurd, and yet the joyful night on 
which the treaty was signed proved to be merely the pre- 
lude to a fresh period of uneasiness. Far from being able 
to pack up and start at once on the return journey to the 
British frontier, the members of the Mission found that 


238 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


their departure must necessarily be delayed for at least a 
week. The camels and other baggage-animals which had 
been taken from them had been sent for safe-keeping to a 
town three days’ journey off, the governor of which was a 
creature of Fath-ud-Din’s. It was therefore needful to send 
after them, and, if the governor would consent to give them 
up, then to bring them back, which in itself involved a 
considerable delay. But this was not all. Jahan Beg in 
Fath-ud-Din’s place bore a certain resemblance to the ass in 
the lion’s skin. As he said himself, he laboured under the 
great disadvantage, as compared with his predecessor, of 
being too scrupulous for the post. 

“ I should have thought I had learnt by this time to do 
in Ethiopia as the Ethiopians do,” he grumbled one day to 
Stratford and Dick, who were entertaining him on the 
verandah of the Durbar-hall with coffee and conversation ; 
“ but I find now that I have some remnants of a Christian 
conscience left somewhere about me still, old renegade 
though I am. I simply haven’t got it in me to take the 
measures which the situation demands. Fath-ud-Din in my 
place would have had no difficulty. He would merely have 
had his predecessor brought before him, and tortured until 
things went smoothly. But he knows that I am not the 
man to do that, and it gives him a tremendous pull over me 
when I want to find out something he knows, or when some 
of his people have to be kept quiet. It isn’t dignified for 
me to be always going to the mouth of the dungeon and 
shouting down questions which he refuses to answer, 
and I have put it to the King that we must try another 
plan.” 

This meant that Fath-ud-Din was to be released from the 
dungeon and kept as a kind of state-prisoner in the Palace. 
The new plan was successful in so far as he was more dis- 
posed to answer questions relating to his past stewardship ; 


A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 


239 


but it worked badly when it emboldened his adherents to 
resist the new Vizier on the ground that he was still afraid 
of his predecessor, and could not act without his help. 
The mob of the city, who had always been Fath-ud-Din’s 
warmest friends, resented his downfall keenly, and lost no 
opportunity of testifying their hatred to Jahan Beg and the 
English strangers, to whose influence that downfall was to be 
ascribed. Once more the Mission was guarded on all sides 
by soldiers, this time in order to prevent a murderous attack 
by the mob, whose attitude was extremely threatening. A 
further danger arose from the fact that there was reason to 
believe that the soldiers themselves were not altogether to 
be depended upon, and this added enormously to the anxiety 
of Stratford and of Jahan Beg. So long as the soldiers 
could keep down the townspeople, and the Grand Vizier 
could keep down the soldiers, things were fairly safe ; but 
at any moment a chance spark might fire the train, and 
an explosion occur, the first results of which would be 
the murder of Jahan Beg and the massacre of the British 
Mission. No one left the house during these days of 
terror, and the gates were barely opened to admit traders 
and messengers. Within, every man had his revolver ready 
to his hand, and heaps of sand-bags were in readiness to 
barricade the entrance to the archway in Bachelors’ Build- 
ings and the windows of the Durbar-hall. The Mission 
premises were in a state of siege. 

During all this anxious time, however, no change was 
made in the social life of the little colony. In spite of 
alarms from without, and the abiding sorrow of Sir Dugald’s 
speechless and unconscious condition, the usual routine of 
work and meals remained unbroken, and the gatherings on 
the terrace after dinner were not abandoned. To Georgia 
there seemed at first something heartless, almost wicked, in 
keeping up appearances in this way at such a crisis ; but it 


240 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


was Lady Haigh herself who pointed out to her the reasons 
for the insensibility which she was inclined to reprobate. 

“ There is the effect on the servants to be considered, my 
dear,” she said. “If we went about looking dishevelled 
and woe-begone, and refused to take our meals at the proper 
hours, we should have them deserting right and left. It 
will help the men, too, more than anything if they see us 
cheerful and apparently unconscious of danger. I believe 
that Mr Stratford and Major ^lorth would be almost heart- 
broken if they imagined that we knew as much about the 
state of things as we do.” 

“But that is very foolish,” objected Georgia. “Why 
don’t they take us into their councils and let us all know 
authoritatively the worst we have to fear ” 

“My dear, men are not made that way. They like to 
think that they have succeeded in hiding their apprehensions 
from us, and that we are pursuing our butterfly existence 
untroubled by thoughts of danger. And if it makes them 
happier to think so, we won’t undeceive them. We will 
dress for dinner, and talk cheerfully, and give them a little 
music in the evenings, and do our best to help them in 
whatever way we can.” 

“ But I don’t like it, Lady Haigh. They are treating us 
like babies.” 

“Well, dear child, we know we are not babies. It is 
hard, I know, when you feel that you could give them 
valuable help — or, at any rate, moral support — if they 
would pay you the compliment of taking you into their 
confidence ; but I believe that this is the way in which we 
can help them most, and sooner than add a finger’s weight 
to the burden those two dear fellows are bearing, I would 
take to bibs and a rattle again ! ” 

And Georgia, while she marvelled, perceived that thirty 
years of married life teach some things about the other sex 


A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 


241 


which are not included in the curriculum of any university 
or medical school It was not without a certain degree of 
envy that she acknowledged to herself that she would have 
been willing to exchange a small portion — perhaps even an 
appreciable amount — of her medical knowledge for a share 
of that acquaintance with the world and with male human 
nature which lay behind Lady Haigh’s shrewd hazel eyes. 
For Dick was still obdurate and unapproachable, and after 
the enlightening which had come to her on the day of the 
signing of the treaty, she did not dare to make any of those 
overtures by means of which she had occasionally succeeded 
in re-establishing peace after their former quarrels. There 
was always the risk that he might misunderstand — or was 
it not rather that he might too well understand] — her 
motive. 

“If it was merely an ordinary disagreement,” she said to 
herself, hopelessly, “ I am not too proud to hold out a hand 
of friendship, hut now ! — I know I said some hard things 
to him, but he had said worse to me — though I shouldn’t 
mind now what he said if only I knew that he cared. And 
I thought he did care — that day when he called me Georgie 
— what could it have meant but that ] It can’t be, oh ! it 
can’t be, that he has been trying to lead me on, and make 
me care for him, in revenge for my refusing him long ago 1 
I won’t believe it of him. It isn’t like him — he wouldn’t 
do it. If it was that — if he could be such a wretch, I would 
— yes, I could forgive him anything but that ! ” 

Dick’s feelings during this period were scarcely more to 
be envied than Georgia’s. Having assured himself that 
nothing on earth could make him more miserable than he 
was already, he was fiercely eager that the crown should be 
given to his misery by Georgia’s engagement to Stratford, 
for the announcement of which he looked daily, but which 
did not take place. On the contrary, Stratford went about 

Q 


242 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


his work as usual, apparently unconscious that anything of 
the kind was or could be expected from him, while Georgia 
looked “ about as wretched — well, as I feel ! ” said Dick to 
himself. He could not reasonably believe that Stratford 
cared for her, after his friend’s explicit denial of the fact ; 
but it became abundantly clear to him that he ought to be 
made to do so, if Georgia’s happiness depended upon it. 
For a day or two he thought seriously of informing him 
that he must — under penalties which Dick did not specify 
to himself — ask her to marry him, since he had evidently 
been trifling with her feelings ; but, happily, a vague impres- 
sion that a marriage entered upon xmder such conditions 
was scarcely likely to turn out well restrained him. The 
more immediate certainty that Miss Keeling would bitterly 
resent such an interference in her affairs did not trouble 
Dick ; it maddened him to see her looking as she looked 
now, and her happiness must be secured in spite of herself. 
In the meantime, he did his best to hate Stratford, both for 
his past conduct and his present callousness as to its results, 
and found it very difficult. The man was his friend and 
good comrade, and absolutely innocent of any wish to 
quarrel, and Dick would find himself sitting on the office 
table and talking familiarly to him as of old. Then he 
would call up the haunting remembrance of Miss Keeling’s 
pale face and reproachful eyes, and divided between the 
desire to avenge her wrongs and the fear of betraying her 
secret, become so snappish that any one but Stratford would 
liave taken offence and demanded an explanation. But 
Stratford had a large fund of patience to draw upon, and he 
was sorry for Dick. He saw that things were not going 
well with him, and although he was too prudent to seek to 
interfere, he was determined not to make matters worse by 
taking up any of the gauntlets which his friend was per- 
petually flinging down. 


A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 


243 


Another person who viewed the state of things with much 
interest and uneasiness was Lady Haigh. During her long 
find philanthropic, if slightly autocratic, experience of 
English life in the East, she had engineered to a satis- 
factory conclusion a good many love affairs, and she had 
welcomed the first signs of this one as affording a fresh 
scope for the exercise of her particular talent. But she had 
now for some days been driven to the opinion that Dick 
and Georgia were playing at cross-purposes, a form of 
recreation which she regarded with the utmost horror, and 
she yearned to do something to set matters right. 

“ISTothing on earth shall induce me to interfere,” she 
assured herself. Interference is a thing I abhor. But if 
either of them should give me the chance of saying a word, 
I shall certainly step in.” 

Fortune favoured Lady Haigh. Coming out on the ter- 
race one evening at dusk, after a long watch in Sir Dugald’s 
room, she saw Dick crossing the court towards her. He 
had just seen that the sentries were properly posted, and 
the flag hauled down for the night, and now he mounted 
the steps and found the terrace apparently empty. Lady 
Haigh was standing motionless in the shadow of the door- 
way, and she heard him sigh, for no obvious reason, as he 
threw himself into one of the chairs, and then propound 
despairingly for his own benefit the well-worn conundrum, 
“ Is life worth living ? ” 

“ I am sorry to hear you say that, Major North,” said 
Lady Haigh, in her brisk tones, as she moved forward out 
of the darkness, and sat down opposite to him. “ You are 
very high in the Service for a man of your age, you have 
the best possible prospects, a sufficiency of money, and a 
record which would make most men’s mouths water. Don’t 
you think that you are a slightly unreasonable — not to say 
ungrateful — man % ” 


244 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ I must beg your pardon for being so trite,” said Dick, 
on the defensive at once. ‘‘If I had known you were 
there, I would have tried to couch my question in more 
original language.” 

“ But you would still have asked it ? ” 

“ I’m afraid so. You think me a discontented beast, 
don’t you, Lady Haighi” 

“That I can’t decide until I know what grounds you 
have for your discontent.” 

“ It isn’t for my own sake — at least, I come into it too, 
of course, but it is chiefly on another person’s account.” 

“ Come, this does you great credit. Major North. That 
the world should become clouded for you on account of 
some one else’s troubles — when everything with which you 
have to do is going on so well ” — she could not resist this 
hit at the reticence which Stratford and he had maintained 
on the subject of the dangers that threatened the party, but 
he did not notice it — “ this shows a most unselfish spirit 
Are the misfortunes of this other person absolutely beyond 
remedy 1 ” 

“ They ought not to be, but I can’t for the life of me see 
how they are to be set right,” said Dick, moodily. 

“ Well, I am very sorry to hear it. If at any time you 
think I can be of any help towards setting them right, be 
sure you let me know. The chief, I may say the only, 
pleasure I have just now lies in helping other people.” 

She rose as though to go indoors, but Dick stopped 
her. 

“ If you can spare me a few minutes, please stay and let 
me tell you about it now,” he entreated. “ I am awfully 
puzzled — and worried — and — and miserable. I want you 
to look at things quite apart from me. If I could only see 
her happy, I might get over it in time, I suppose, but 
now ” 


A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 


245 


“My dear boy ” Lady Haigh began, then, hoping 

that he had not observed the slip, altered it to, “ My dear 
Major !N'orth, you must please explain yourself a little. 
Who is the lady to whom you refer — not Miss Keeling 1” 
“Yes, it is Miss Keeling,” said Dick, rather guiltily. 

“ But is Miss Keeling unhappy 1 ” 

“ How you women hang together ! ” he remarked, with 
some bitterness. “ You must have seen it, Lady Haigh, and 
yet you won’t say a word to help me out. I feel as if I had 
no business to talk about it, even to you — and yet you are 
the only other woman here — and it isn’t as though I was 
betraying her confidence, for she never told me. She only 

let me see unmistakably ” 

“ I am afraid you won’t believe me,” interrupted Lady 
Haigh, “ but I really don’t understand you. If I can do 
anything whatever to help either you or Miss Keeling, you 
may count upon me, as I said just now ; but please don’t 
think I want to pry into your private affairs.” 

“I’m a fearful bear,” said Dick, penitently, “and it’s 
awfully good of you to be willing to take so much trouble 
about us, when Sir Dugald is iU, and you have so much 
to be anxious about. I’ll make a clean breast of the 
whole thing, for I am quite at the end of my tether, and 
I can’t see what to do. It doesn’t signify what happens 

to me, you know, but ” 

“Do you know that you are frightening me. Major 
Korth? What desperate enterprise has Miss Keeling got 
on hand that you should talk about her and yourself in this 
strain ? ” 

“ It’s nothing of that kind. It is only that I want to 
see her happy. Perhaps you don’t know that for some 
time lately I have been beginning to hope that one day she 
might get to care for me 1 ” Lady Haigh smothered a smile, 
and nodded assent. “Well, it was on the day that the 


246 


PEACE WITH HONOUR 


treaty was signed that I found out all at once that it was 
Stratford she cared for.” 

“ Mr Stratford ? ” cried Lady Haigh, with a start. “ Are 
you quite certain ^ ” 

I had no idea of anything of the kind until she turned 
on me and asked why I had let him go to the Palace to 
save her, and said she would never speak to me again if 
anything happened to him. I couldn’t mistake that, could 
11” he asked, with a dreary smile. “ It was all clear to 
me at once, and I can’t tell you what an arrant and un- 
mitigated and contemptible brute I felt for having let him 
go. I’m sure I should never have had the face to go near 
her again if he had got killed.” 

“ Well, but wasn’t it all right when he came back 1 ” 

“ No, indeed ; it is all wrong. He doesn’t care for her ; 
he told me so himself before he went. Now, you know, 
no one can be astonished at her caring for him, he is such 
an out-and-out good fellow ; but if he doesn’t care for her, 
what is to be done 1 That is what I am addling my brains 
over, and if you can suggest anything. Lady Haigh, I shall 
bless you for ever.” 

“ What was your own idea as to what ought to be 
done 1 ” ' . 

“Well, it’s pretty clear to me that if Miss Keeling had 
a father or a brother out here, it would be his business to 
take the matter in hand, and bring Stratford to book — ask 
him his intentions, and that sort of thing. I don’t want 
to say anything against him, but it’s quite plain that he 
isn’t doing the proper thing ; and if he has made her care 
for him with those high and mighty A.D.C. airs of his ” — 
Dick spoke with the lively bitterness of a man who has 
known and suffered far from gladly the wiseacres of a vice- 
regal entourage — “ he ought not to be allowed to cry off 
like this without even asking her to marry him.” 


A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 


247 


“ Then the propriety of your assuming the role of Miss 
Keeling’s brother, and representing the matter to him your- 
self, has not suggested itself to you ^ ” Lady Haigh waited 
with keen anxiety for the answer, which came with a 
groan. 

“ Hasn’t it indeed ? But how is a man to do such a 
thing without giving the girl away*? Don’t tell me you 
think I ought to do it, Lady Haigh ! I’ll do it if you say 
I must ; but really, you know, I am absolutely the worst 
fellow that ever was born for a delicate job of that kind. 
Stratford told me himself on that very day that tact was 
not my strong point, which is putting it mildly, and this 
sort of thing simply cries aloud for tact.” 

‘‘You are quite right, it, does, and I am truly thankful 
that you have not felt called upon to attempt it.” Dick 
heaved a sigh of relief. “But do tell me, Major Korth, 
why you are wilHng to put aside your own hopes in 
this way, and bring Mr Stratford to book 1 ” 

“ Because I want to see her happy,” growled Dick. 

“ You think she is not happy ? ” 

“ Look at her face. Ever since that day, she has looked 
quite different. Perhaps you haven’t noticed it, for she 
keeps a cheerful expression for company. But I have come 
upon her unexpectedly, and seen her when she thought no 
one was looking, and her face — well, it made me want 
to pulverise Stratford, that’s all. She put on the cheerful 
expression again as soon as she caught me looking at her, 
just as though I didn’t know all about it, and wouldn’t give 
my right hand to help her,” he concluded, resentfully. 

“Major Horth,” said Lady Haigh, solemnly, “if your 
insight into character was only equal to your goodwill, you 

would be a very clever man, but as it is ” there was an 

expressive pause, then Lady Haigh bent towards him, and 
spoke very low and distinctly. “ You are quite right not 


248 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


to speak to Mr Stratford, it would only do harm; but 
I think you ought to speak to Miss Keeling herself. What 
you have told me is news to me, and if I am not mistaken, 
it will also be news to her. You would tell her, of course, 
that you had discovered that she was in love with Mr 
Stratford, and was pining for him, because he would not 
ask her to marry him. That is the kind of fact about 
oneself which one has a right to know. Tell her, by all 
means. I don’t guarantee that you will escape with your 
life, but a storm clears the air sometimes. On second 
thoughts, don’t tell her. I really think it would be scarcely 
safe. Lay your own story before her — without any names, 
if you like — and see what she says. That is my honest 
and candid advice, without any kind of joking. If you 
won’t take it, I fear I can’t help you.” 

And Lady Haigh rose and went into the house, leaving 
Dick stupefied. He felt utterly bewildered, and was 
conscious only that he must have made some egregious 
mistake, which Lady Haigh had perceived, but would 
not point out to him for fear of spoiling the game. In 
spite of her assurance that she was not joking, he yet 
hesitated to accept her last piece of advice. What possible 
good could it do to teU Miss Keeling Ms story, even 
supposing that he could succeed in finding her alone, and 
that she would vouchsafe to listen to him ? It looked like 
stealing a march on Stratford, too ; hut, of course, that was 
absurd. Stratford was in possession of the field, and if 
it was no good attempting a serious attack on his position, 
how could it serve any useful purpose to make a feint of an 
assault upon it % It could only render Miss Keeling more 
unhappy still, for Dick felt sure that she would pity even him 
when she learnt how the words which had escaped her lips 
in her first grief and despair had gone to his heart. There 
seemed to he no way out of the dilemma, and Dick decided 


A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 


249 


very quickly that he would not in any case follow Lady 
Ilaigh’s counsel, for fear of complicating the situation 
further. At least he could keep his own feelings in the 
background, while waiting anxiously for something to turn 
up that might relieve him from the necessity of taking any 
step at alL As it happened, however, the explanation he 
dreaded was precipitated by an event of so much import- 
ance that it actually obscured in his mind for the time the 
whole question he had discussed with Lady Haigh. 

Bad news reached the Mission on the following morning. 
The district which had hitherto been ruled by Fath-ud-Din 
was in open revolt. The governor of the town to which 
the baggage -animals had been sent refused to surrender 
them except to Fath-ud-Din or the King in person, and this 
necessitated the despatch of a military expedition to enforce 
compliance with the royal order. Jahan Beg could not ven- 
ture to leave the capital, and although Bustam Khan was 
to be sent in command of the forces, the business was likely 
to be a long one in the present unsatisfactory state of the 
army. This meant a further period of detention at Kubbet- 
ul-Haj for the Mission, and Stratford and Dick, feeling that 
they could not impose upon the ladies much longer with 
any hope of success, broke the news to them with elaborate 
care. Lady Haigh, true to her self-effacing creed, received 
it with suitable alarm; but Georgia puzzled the two men 
by exclaiming, “ Is that aU ^ ” in a tone which showed that 
their considerate method of making the announcement had 
prepared her to hear things much worse than the reality. 
Dick thought that she was failing to realise the gravity of 
the news, and anticipated a reaction when she began to 
perceive fuUy what it meant ; and when he came upon her 
on the terrace after dinner that evening, he thought that 
the reaction had come. Lady Haigh had been called away, 
and Dick, emerging from the lighted dining-room to make 


250 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


his usual tour of inspection, found Georgia sitting alone and 
gazing into the darkness. Something in the desolation of 
her attitude went to his heart, and he approached her 
impulsively and laid his hand upon her shoulder. 

“ For heaven’s sake. Miss Keeling, don’t give in now ! ” 
he said, hoarsely. “ You and Lady Haigh have kept our 
hearts up all this week by your pluck and cheerfulness.” 

“ I don’t think I am afraid,” said Georgia, without look- 
ing at him. “One could always ’ defend oneself, you see, 
if the mob broke in, and that would probably ensure death 
at once, and I have seen too many deathbeds not to know 
that death is generally easier than most people think. Ko, 
it is the isolation, the fearful loneliness, the feeling that there 
is not one of these people, to whom we have been trying to 
do good, that does not hate us heartily.” 

“Oh, I hope it’s not so bad as you think ” began Dick; 

but his clumsy attempt at consolation died on his lips. 
“How long have you known that things were as bad as 
they are?” he asked her. 

“As long as you have,” returned Georgia, with some 
scorn. 

“Hot really so long? We were trying to save you from 
the knowledge. We hoped ” 

“ Yes, I know ; but, unfortunately, you had to deal with 
an old campaigner and a Hew Woman, you see. Lady Haigh 
and I were able to read* the signs of the times as well as you 
and Mr Stratford ; but we pretended that we knew nothing 
about things, for the sake of sparing your feelings. How, 
do you think you have treated us properly ? I don’t de- 
mand information as a right ; I only ask whether it was fair 
— whether it was even kind — to try and keep us in ignor- 
ance? We have at least as much at stake as you have.” 

“ At least ? ” he repeated, bitterly. “ I can tell you that 
I would give my life gladly to know that you were in 


A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 


251 


Khemistan and safe out of this. ITow you can’t say that 
I haven’t spoken plainly.” 

“ But why not have told us the worst before, and let us 
talk it over, and get what comfort we could out of that ^ 
Facing a danger boldly makes it seem much less terrible. 
It is the guessing, and the wondering, and the putting two 
and two together, and the anxiety as to whether there has 
been any fresh trouble, of which we know nothing, to make 
you and Mr Stratford look graver and graver every day, 
that have been so dreadful this week.” 

“Have a little pity for me, Georgia,” he said, almost 
roughly ; and she realised, with a sudden tightening of the 
heart, that he had used the same words that other day. 
“ Do you think it’s an easy or a pleasant thing for a man 
to tell the woman he loves — as I love you — that such things 
are before her as seem to be before us now 1 Ho, don’t start 
and turn your back on me — you have brought this on your- 
self. You laughed at me when I told you I loved you long 
ago, and again and again since we first met this year you 
have shown me pretty plainly that nothing I could do would 
ever change your tone. When I begged your pardon after 
that fuss about your doctoring the Chief, and you wouldn’t 
listen to me, I couldn’t have believed a woman would have 
spoken in such a way to the greatest blackguard on earth, 
let alone a man that had put himself at her mercy. Your 
mercy, indeed ! — I believe you enjoy tormenting me. But 
you can go too far — even with me. Under ordinary cir- 
cumstances I should have respected your wishes, and not 
persecuted you with my unwelcome attentions ; but this is 
not an ordinary time, and you have goaded me beyond bear- 
ing, and I tell you — and you shall hear it — that I shall love 
you till I die — and beyond. You can’t alter it.” 

He paused, expecting an outburst of anger, but Georgia’s 
head was turned away from him, and she made no answer. 


262 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


** I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he said at last, appro- 
hensively, his conscience smiting him for his roughness. 
“ I know by what you have said that you have enough to 
hear already.” 

“ I am not crying ! ” said Georgia, resenting the accusation 
indignantly, and for one moment she turned her eyes upon 
him. They were shining, hut not with tears. Dick thought 
that it was with anger, and her words served to confirm him 
in his belief. “ I have tried to he patient with you,” she 
went on quickly, and her voice seemed to him to he throb- 
bing with wounded pride, “ but you are too unfair. You 
say you love me, but how do you treat me ? Since we met 
last March — as you said just now ; you see that I can hoard 
up grudges as well as you — you have done nothing but 
parade your contempt for me, and for everything I care for. 
What do you know about the New Woman‘s What do you 
know about me 1 and yet you have persecuted me continu- 
ally with the name, which you, at any rate, meant to be 
one of reproach. I don’t know what your idea of love may 
be, but I think that it ought to teach a little tenderness — a 
little consideration for the other person’s feelings. How 
dare you tell me that you love me 'i You might, if you could 
bend me to your own pattern; but you can’t, and so you have 
done your best to show that you dislike me. Not that your 
dislike signifies to me in the least, of course,” with superb 
disdain, “ but I don’t see why you should render yourself 
generally unpleasant by exhibiting it.” 

“Make a little allowance for me, please. I loved you, 
and you would not listen to me. I daresay I have made 
an awful idiot of myself, but ” 

“ Don’t say that you had excuse. I was always willing 
to be friends with you, if you would only ” 

“ Friends 1 I don’t want your friendship. There can be no 
such thing between you and me. I must have all or nothing.” 


A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 


253 


“And by way of getting all, you did everything you 
could to make it impossible for me to give you anything ? 
I am not a Griselda, and if you will excuse my saying it, I 
don’t think nature intended you for a Petruchio. Were 
you really under the impression that the best way of win- 
ning a woman’s heart was to abuse all her friends and pour 
contempt on all her interests 1 How could I learn to care 
for you 1 ” 

“ I am very sorry, Georgie,” said Dick, humbly enough. 

“ It is possible to be sorry too late,” Georgia went on 
mercilessly ; but he interrupted her with a burst of 
passion. 

“ Don’t I know that 1 Hasn’t it tormented me day and 
night since I knew that you cared for him 1 Don’t try 
me too far. I have done my best not to worry you since 
that day, and if I could do anything to make you happy 
with him, I would ; but I can’t stand it if you begin to 
moralise on the subject. You expect too much of a man.” 

“ I don’t know what you mean,” said Georgia, turning 
round quickly. Her face had grown very pale. “Who 
is the person you are talking about?” 

“Why, Stratford, of course,” said Dick, off his guard. 
Georgia’s eyes flamed. 

“ Stratford ? You thought I was in love with Mr 
Stratford? After that, I don’t think there is anything 
more that need be said. Major North. Will you kindly 
let me pass?” 

But he would not. Despair gave him courage, and he 
put his arm across the doorway. “ Georgie, I’m an idiot 
and an ass and an utter fool, but give me another chance. 
I do love you, and if you will only let me try again, now 
that there’s no other fellow in the way, perhaps you might 
come to care for me a little in time.” 

Georgia wavered, and was lost. She had caught sight 


254 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


of his face in the moonlight, and there was an expression 
in his eyes which completed what his eager, halting words 
had begun. “ Oh, Dick, don’t look at me like that,” she 
entreated, laying her hands on his arm. “You may try 
again.” 

“ Try again ) Georgie, may I really 1 How much does 
that mean?” 

“ Take the night to think over it,” said Georgia, trying 
to slip past him indoors j hut he caught her hands and held 
her prisoner. 

“You said just now ‘how could you learn to care for 
me ? ’ I thought you meant that it was impossible. Did 
you mean that there might be a chance ? J ust the one 
word, dear.” 

“Yes,” said Georgia, in a voice which was somewhat 
muffled. “At least, I mean no. I have cared for you a 
long time.” 

“ What a beast I have been ! ” was the next coherent 
remark uttered by Dick. 

“ You were rather a trial,” was the murmured answer. 

“ But I am going to reform now, Georgie. You must 
pull me up if I let out at anything in which you have the 
smallest interest. But I could praise up the Hew Woman 
herself to-night.” 

“ Considering that I am the embodiment of the Hew 
Woman to your mind,” began Georgia, “ that is a very 
poor ” 

“ I say, Horth, is there anything wrong ? Haven’t you 
finished your rounds yet?” shouted Stratford, coming to 
the dining-room window with a half-smoked cigar in his 
fingers. 

“ Ho, it’s all right,” answered Dick’s voice, unexpectedly 
near at hand. “ I’ll do the rounds in a minute.” 


POINTS OF VIEW. 


255 


CHAPTEK XVIL 

POINTS OF VIEW. 


“Well, Georgier’ 

“ WeU, Dick ? ” 

Georgia’s eyes danced with merriment, for Dick was 
lying in wait for her on the verandah, with a hunch of 
roses in his hand. Kuhbet-ul-Haj roses are not roses of 
Damascus, or of Kashmir, or of any other locality famous 
for the culture of the plant ; but poor as they were, they 
were flowers, and of flowers the prisoners at the Mission 
had seen but few of late. He held them out to her with 
quite unusual timidity. 

“Will you have them 1 ” he asked, somewhat shyly. 

“ Of course I will, Dick. Thank you so much.” She 
took them from his hand, kissed them, and fastened them 
in her dress. “ Are you satisfied now 1 ” she asked, smiling. 

“ Satisfied ! ” he said, looking at her admiringly. “ I 
feel now that what happened last night was a reality.” 

“ Why, had you begun to hope it was a dream ” 

“ It might have been merely imagination — too good to 
be true. Stratford has just been declaring that I was mad 
last evening. He says that I wanted to sit up all night 
and talk, and that he had to turn me out of his room by 
main force.” 

“ Poor fellow ! Were you trying to drown the remem- 
brance of what had happened?” 

“ Drown it, indeed ! burn it in, more likely. I can’t 
imagine how you ever came to — Georgie, there’s one thing 
that puzzles me still. Why were you so angry because 
Stratford went to the Palace instead of me ? I did all I 


256 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


could to go, of course, because I wanted to do something for 
you ; but why did you mind so much ? ” 

“ Never mind,” said Georgia, growing rather red ; “ it was 
absurd and unreasonable of me. I know you must have 
thought that I wanted you to be killed.” 

“ But why was it 1 ” 

“ I suppose you will give me no peace until I tell you. 
It was because I couldn’t bear to think you cared so little 
about me as to let him go instead.” 

“ I wish I had gone ! ” said Dick, enviously. 

“ Then you would probably have been killed, and the 
treaty would not have been signed, and we should never 
have known what we know now — about our caring for each 
other, I mean. I might have guessed the truth when I 
heard that you had gone, but I could never have been sure ; 
it might only have been a way of taking a noble revenge on 
me, you know. And you would have sacrificed yourself and 
perhaps even died, believing all the time that I detested 
you. I know you deserved it, but still, I should have been 
sorry. No, things are much better as they are. It was 
very silly of me to think and say what I did.” 

“ I like you to be silly about me.” 

“ And you don’t like me under other circumstances ? I 
hope I am not always silly.” 

“ I don’t care about circumstances, or wisdom, or foolisli- 
ness, or anything. I love you because you are yourself.” 

“ Dick, yo)i are incorrigible ! ” There was a slight sore- 
ness in Georgia’s tone. It was undeniable that Dick was 
lacking in tact. 

“ Now I have gone and hurt your feelings again ! I wish 
I wasn’t such a blundering idiot.” 

“ Dick, listen to me. I want you to do me a favour.” 

“ If there is any single thing in the whole world I could 
do for you ” 


POINTS OF VIEW. 


267 


** You would do it, I know, however great it was. But 
it is a number of little things, Dick. I know you don’t 
mean to hurt me, but you often do. Think a moment. I 
don’t love you any more because of your Victoria Cross, but 
it makes me glad and proud to think that you have it. I 
know I can’t expect you to be glad that I am a doctor, and 
proud of being one, because you dislike the very idea ; but I 
want you to treat the subject tenderly, because it is con- 
nected with me. I daresay it seems very strange to you 
that I should be as sensitive about my profession as you are 
about yours, and I know you will never look at the two 
things in the same light, but I ask you to regard it as a 
concession to my weakness when you let an opportunity 
pass without a sneer. We must agree to differ on this 
question, I suppose, but I want you to do it gracefully, for 
my sake.” There were tears in her eyes as she looked at 
him, and Dick felt the enormity of his conduct more keenly 
than he had ever done in the days when he delighted to 
provoke her to arguments and the delivery of lectures. 

“ What a brute I must have been, that you should find it 
necessary to ask such a thing of me ! ” he burst out. “ It 
makes me feel thoroughly ashamed to think what a cad I 
am. Do you think that it’s safe to have anything to do 
with me, Georgie 1 ” 

“ I don’t know whether it’s safe or not, but I love you 
so much that I couldn’t do without you,” said Georgia, 
unsteadily. 

“To hear you say that makes me feel that I could do 
anything you asked me. Help me to be more worthy of 
you, Georgie. If I hurt your feelings after this I deserve 
to be hung. PuU me up — simply slang me — if I say 
anything unkind. I never thought I was such a black- 
guard. Ho, only look at me, as you did just now, and 
if I don’t wilt, as Hicks puts it, that instant, then throw 

R 


258 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


me over, for I shan’t be worth troubling about. I will get 
over that habit of letting out at the things you care for. I 
feel as though I could go anywhere and do anything to-day.” 

“ And I feel so ridiculously safe,” said Georgia, smiling 
at him with an April face. 

“ And yet nothing is really different from what it was 
yesterday.” 

“ Oh, Dick ! everything is different. There is hope 
to-day, and there was none then. Think how dreadful 
it would have been to be killed when everything was 
wrong between us.” 

“ What a remark ! ” said Dick, lazily — “ it^s almost worthy 
of young Anstruther; and how particularly cheerful the 
subjects of your thoughts are ! Now that I am in a 
position to keep you from making rash expeditions to 
the Palace, I must say that I don’t see any present danger 
of your being killed.” 

“The calmness with which you contemplate such a 
contingency does infinite credit to your strength of mind, 
sir. But it is rather strange that you should have men- 
tioned the Palace, for I am going there this morning.” 

“Not with my consent” 

“Then without it, I am afraid. Dick, you are not 
going to get up a quarrel over such a little thing, surely? 
You don’t imagine that I should think of going now 
without taking every possible precaution, and getting 
Mr Stratford’s leave?” 

“ What has Stratford got to do with it? It’s my affair.” 

“Excuse me, I think it’s mine. Now, Dick, you don’t 
deserve to be reassured and made to feel comfortable about 
it, but I am going to be magnanimous. While you were 
out in the early morning there came a messenger from the 
King. He said that they had not yet taken the bandage 
from the Queen’s eyes, because they were afraid to touch 


POINTS OF VIEW. 


259 


it if I was not there. He was so anxious that I should 
he present and direct operations that he offered of his own 
accord to send Antar Khan here as a hostage for the whole 
time I am gone. Kow are you satisfied?” 

“ Hot unless I go with you.” 

“ But that’s impossible. Eahah and I make the passage 
in the litter, and we couldn’t manage to smuggle you in. 
Besides, what should we do with you when We got to 
the Palace?” 

“That wasn’t what I meant. I will take five or six 
of the servants and ride beside you. Then I shall wait 
in the men’s part of the Palace while you go to see the 
Queen, and bring you back again. You won’t find me 
leaving the place without you.” 

“I’m afraid you’ll find it rather dull We shan’t 
be able to talk, you know. But of course I should like 
it much better if you were there. You will come, then ?” 

“ Bather. If you will run into danger, you shall not go 
alone — now.” 

“Your permission is slightly grudging,” said Georgia, 
laughing, but she was heartily glad to have his escort. 
The unpleasant circumstances of her last visit to the 
Palace had made her shrink from going there again, 
although she had a particular reason for desiring to do 
so. The thought that Dick would not be far off was a 
reassuring one, even though there was no reason for an- 
ticipating any unfriendliness from the royal household. 
And in this way it came to pass that when the Palace 
litter, closely guarded by soldiers, conveyed Georgia and 
her handmaid to visit her patient, Dick rode behind it 
with six of the servants of the Mission, who were divided 
between delight at being outside the walls of the house 
once more, and a certain degree of terror at the prospect 
of finding themselves inside the Palace. 


260 


PEACE WITH HONOUB. 


Reclining luxuriously on the cushions, with Rahah 
crouching opposite to her, Georgia spent the time occupied 
by the transit in recapitulating to herself the points of the 
inquiry which she was anxious to make, and which had as 
its primary object the re-establishment of Sir Dugald’s 
health. The disagreeable interruption of her interview 
with Nur Jahan’s mother, by the entrance of the King’s 
younger wife, had prevented her from putting to the 
women present the questions which had been suggested 
to her by their mention of the witch whose poisons Fath- 
ud-Din was wont to employ to rid him of his enemies. The 
name and dwelling-place of this old woman had become 
matters of the deepest interest to Georgia, and she was 
also eager for any information that it might be possible to 
obtain as to her methods and the poisons she used. On 
what she could discover this morning. Sir Dugald’s life, 
or at any rate, his restoration to health, might depend, and 
this in itself was enough to determine Georgia to leave no 
stone unturned in the effort to ensure success. But it 
must be confessed that she had an additional motive — a 
sufficiently weighty one, although completely secondary — 
and this was the subjugation, or conviction, or conversion, 
whichever it might be called, of Dick. She did not give 
the process any of these names in her own mind, but she 
recognised that in the present state of affairs between them 
the old difference of opinion was only lying dormant, and 
that sooner or later it must revive. Shrinking with all her 
heart from the idea of paining, or even opposing him, she 
was none the less aware that any surrender on her part 
would only bring her grief and remorse later, and she 
longed to be able to do something that might justify 
her in Dick’s eyes, might bring him to acquiesce of his 
own free will in her continuing the practice of her pro- 
fession, and thus avert the crisis she foresaw and feared. 


POINTS OF VIEW. 


261 


There was only one thing that could come between Dick 
and herself, and that was her work; hut she knew that 
if she was true to her principles, she must uphold it 
against Dick. She had gained a temporary advantage that 
morning, but she was already ashamed of the weapons of 
which she had made use. 

“ Mine was a weak impulse,” she said to herself, “ for it 
led me to appeal merely to Dick’s feelings, instead of to his 
reason and his sense of right. I made him ashamed of him- 
self, but it was in an unfair way — almost as bad as it would 
have been if I had cried. I can’t think what led me to do 
it — I suppose it was simply a reversion to the tactics of the 
Old Woman. It was lowering myself, and it lowered Dick 
— he would never have stooped to try to coax me, but he 
yields when I coax him. Of course he liked it — he natur- 
ally would, but that doesn’t make it any better. I asked 
him to do as a favour to me what he ought, as a gentleman, 
to do as a mere matter of justice, and if he follows the thing 
out logically he will feel at liberty to sneer at any other 
medical woman he may meet, even though he makes an 
exception in my case. I have gone to work in the wrong 
way — no doubt it is the most comfortable, but that doesn’t 
signify if it isn’t right. It’s no use pretending that Dick is 
perfect — he isn’t, any more than I am; but I want to see him 
getting nearer to perfection the more I have to do with him, 
and it wouldn’t be the way to bring that about if I helped 
him to grow into a tyrant whose most unreasonable wish was 
law unless he could be wheedled out of it. 'No, I see that 
he has a great deal to learn yet : I am only afraid that I 
may not be the right person to teach it him. I am so 
much afraid of hurting his feelings — and I don’t know 
how I could ever do without him now.” 

In short, Georgia was in a difficult position, between an 
exacting professional conscience and a sufficiently masterful 


262 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


lover, but it is possible that her very tenderness for Dick’s 
feelings afforded her a better guarantee of success than if 
she had cared for him less. He, on his part, was quite con 
tent to enjoy to the full his unexpected happiness, without 
troubling himself about the future, and he knew nothing of 
the heavy sigh with which Georgia at last put her own 
affairs from her, and dismounted from the litter in the 
harem courtyard at the Palace, prepared to throw herself 
wholly into the joys and sorrows of its inmates. 

“ 0 doctor lady ! ” cried Hur Jahan, rushing to meet her 
with much clashing of bangles and rustling of stiff satin, 
“ it rejoices my eyes to behold thee again. We feared that 
after the evil words of Antar Khan’s mother thou wouldst 
never return to us. Truly the world has changed for 
us all since thou wert here, and were it not for my lord’s 
aljsence with the army I should have nothing to wish 
for.” 

She led Georgia into the Queen’s room, where the patient 
was waiting in pitiable anxiety. The long delay, which she 
had been too nervous to terminate at the proper time, had 
tasked the poor lady’s patience to the utmost, and she was 
feverishly eager that the result of the operation should be 
known, and the final verdict uttered. The room was care- 
fully darkened, and Georgia unfastened the bandages. For 
a moment the Queen’s weakened eyes could see nothing, 
and a low despairing wail broke from her, but almost as 
Georgia laid her hand upon her shoulder and exhorted her 
to be calm, the moan changed to a cry of joy. 

“ I can see ! ” she cried. God is great, and great is the 
power He has given to the English and to the doctor lady. 
With these eyes of mine I shall behold my son’s son before 
I die.” 

“Here is the child, 0 my mother,” said Hur Jahan, 
laying her baby eagerly in the Queen’s arms. “ Bless him 


POINTS OF VIEW. 


263 


now, and bless also the doctor lady, through whose skill 
thou beholdest him.” 

“ Almost I might believe myself young again, with my 
son Eustam Khan in my arms,” said the grandmother, look- 
ing fondly at the baby, “ and yet this is Eustam Khan’s son 
that I hold. 0 doctor lady, if the blessing of one who has 
suffered much, and whom thou hast by thine art brought 
back from the gates of despair, can benefit thee, thou hast 
it now, and may it follow thee and thy children and thy 
children’s children for ever ! ” 

Georgia’s own eyes were dim with tears as she turned 
away to put together the things she had brought with her, 
and the slaves crowded round her in grateful reverence, 
kissing the hem of her dress and laying her hand on their 
heads, while Kur Jahan despatched a messenger to inform 
the King that the operation had been successful. The slave 
returned in a short time, accompanied by the chamberlain 
who presided over the treasury, bearing a mass of jewellery 
tied up in a thick silk handkerchief as a gift to the doctor 
lady, together with the King’s grateful thanks. Georgia 
knew her duty with respect to presents of this kind, and 
having raised the handkerchief to her forehead, she placed 
it again on the tray on which it had arrived, and choosing 
out of the heap a necklace of curious workmanship, but of 
comparatively small intrinsic value, she returned the re- 
mainder to the bearer, desiring him to convey her thanks to 
the King. Eahah was made happy by the gift of a massive 
pair of anklets, in which she clanked about as though in 
fetters ; and the negro, as he withdrew, intimated that the 
King intended to mark the occasion by gifts of jewellery to 
his wife and daughter-in-law and their respective attendants. 
Hence it was a very merry party which partook presently of 
005*06 and sweatmeats in the Queen’s room, and Georgia ob 
served with some amusement that now it was the Queen’s 


264 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


servants who shrieked shrill defiances across the courtyard 
at the attendants of Antar Khan’s mother, and that they 
were powerless to retaliate. They sat in a scowling and dis- 
consolate row on the verandah, and, as Mr Hicks would 
have put it, “ squirmed ” under the infliction. 

“ Must thou leave us when thy friends depart, 0 doctor 
lady ? ” asked the Queen. “ There are many women blind 
and sick and lame in Kubbet-ul-Haj, much more in all 
Ethiopia. Wilt thou not stay and cure them?” 

“I am afraid I must go back when the Mission does,” 
said Georgia, “ though I shall be very sorry to have to leave 
you all, and I wish I might hope to come back. But I 
shall not be my own mistress for very long now.” 

“ Has the wife of the Queen of England’s Envoy found 
a husband for thee, then, 0 doctor lady?” asked Kur Jahan 
with deep commiseration, forgetting the unfavourable im- 
pression of her own married life which the words would 
convey ; “ I thought thou wert free and happy.” 

“Peace, Kur Jahan!” said the Queen, quickly. “Know- 
est thou not that the caged birds should entice the wild 
ones into the trap, and not warn them away? Hath the 
lot of all women overtaken thee at last, 0 doctor lady ? I 
would have thee give God thanks that it comes so late.” 

“ 0 my ladies,” said Eahah, indignantly, “ surely ye know 
not the ways of the English. The great lord that is to 
marry my lady is a mighty captain, and his name is known 
throughout all Khemistan. He is rich also, and his hand 
is bountiful,” and Eahah surveyed complacently a new 
bracelet she had made for herself that very morning by 
stringing together certain silver coins, “and to please my 
lady he would give all that he has. In his own eyes he is 
but the dust under her feet.” 

“ Art thou so young as to be thus deceived, girl ? ” asked 
the Queen, compassionately. “ Surely it is ill with thy 


POINTS OF VIEW. 


265 


mistress if thou art led away and withheld from warning 
her by a few pieces of silver. These that thou hast men- 
tioned are the ways of all men at the first, hut sooner 
or later the change comes. I warn thee, 0 doctor lady, 
when thy lord brings another wife into the house, however 
solemnly he may have assured thee that thou shalt always 
reign there alone, reproach him not, but he friendly with 
her, if she will have it so, for otherwise she will prevail 
upon him to cast thee out.” 

To the astonishment of the whole circle, Georgia was 
laughing so heartily over the idea thus presented to her 
that she could scarcely speak, hut Eahah explained with 
haughty superiority the difference between English and 
Ethiopian marriage customs, although her explanation was 
received with manifest incredulity. It was not until Georgia 
had declared solemnly that if her husband brought a second 
wife into the house she would instantly leave it, and that 
the law of England and public opinion would support her 
in doing so, that the ladies began to perceive that there 
might he advantages attaching to matrimony in Europe 
which were lacking to it in Kuhhet-ul-Haj. Hur Jahan 
possessed the moral support of Eustam Khan’s promise to 
her father that he would not take a second wife ; hut it 
was evident that the Queen and her women regarded this 
as a temporary concession which might or might not con- 
tinue to he observed, and that public opinion would think 
no worse of Eustam Khan if he withdrew it. 

“ It is right, 0 doctor lady,” said the Queen, “ that thou 
shouldest have a prospect of happiness in marriage, for thou 
hast dealt well indeed with me and with my house.” 

“Kay, 0 my mother,” said Kur Jahan, “is it not rather 
that the doctor lady has brought us good luck, from her 
first coming until now ? Since she came, the wicked Fath- 
ud-Din has been cast down and punished, and my father is 


266 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


put into his place. Thine adversary has been made to eat 
dirt, and the faces of all our enemies are humbled before 
us. My lord is restored to his honours and to his command, 
and my mother has returned to her house in peace with 
many gifts, sent her by our lord the King. And thine eyes 
are opened also. Is not the doctor lady truly a hringer of 
good luck ? ” 

“ And yet our coming to Kuhhet-ul-Haj has not brought 
good fortune to ourselves,” said Georgia, sadly. “ One of 
our party has been murdered, and the Envoy himself lies 
like one dead ” 

“ And a husband has been found for thee,” murmured the 
irrepressible Kur Jahan. 

“ I see you won’t believe me when I tell you that I don’t 
count that a misfortune,” said Georgia. “ I am not joking, 
Kur Jahan. I need help very much, and I think that 
some of you can give it me, but it is in quite a different 
matter.” 

“ Speak, 0 doctor lady,” said the Queen, “ and may the 
blindness thou hast taken from me rest on any that refuse 
to help thee.” 

“You were speaking the other day,” said Georgia, “of 
some old woman who was supposed to help Eath-ud-Din 
by poisoning his enemies. Is this known to be true, or 
is it merely common talk?” 

“It is quite true,” replied the Queen, “that several of 
Eath-ud- Din’s enemies have died in agonising torments 
which no physician could alleviate. One expired in tor- 
turing thirst, with such pains as those experience who 
have lost their way in the desert and can find no water.” 
Georgia nodded quickly. “ Another died of hunger, which 
tormented him with its pangs, while he could swallow 
nothing to alleviate them. Yet another went mad, and 
rushing through the city, cast himself headlong from the 


POINTS OF VIEW. 


267 


walls ; and of one the wives and children died one after the 
other, until, broken down by misery, he died also.” 

“Tell me,” said Georgia, eagerly, “has any one whom 
Tath-ud-Din hated ever fallen into a sleep so heavy that 
he could not be awakened, in which he remained for weeks 
and yet lived ? ” 

The ladies turned and looked at one another. “ It is the 
Father of sleep ! ” were the words that passed between them. 

“You know something about it 1 ” cried Georgia. 

“We know nothing, 0 doctor lady,” said Hur Jahan; 
“but we have heard much concerning a certain drug of 
this wicked woman’s. Others of her poisons are drawn, 
men say, from strange plants of distant lands ; but this is 
taken from a fish which is found upon a certain island 
of the southern seas, and whose scales and bones and flesh, 
so they say, have been all filled with poison by wicked 
enchantments, and they call it the Father of sleep.” 

“Then have you ever known an instance when it was 
used 1 ” asked Georgia, filled with eager anticipation. 

“ I have, 0 doctor lady,” said one of the Queen’s confi- 
dential slaves, “ and I will tell thee of it if my mistress will 
suffer me to speak freely.” 

“ Speak,” said the Queen. “ Have not I commanded all 
my household to assist the doctor lady in every way 1 ” 

“ It was many years ago, when our lord the King married 
the Vizier’s sister, who is now the mother of Antar Khan,” 
said the slave, rather reluctantly, “ and our lord the King’s 
sister, the Lady Fatma, in whose service I was at that time, 
was very angry about the match. It was even said that 
she had almost succeeded in breaking it off. That wicked 
woman, the sorceress, the accursed Khadija, was sent by 
Fath-ud-Din to warn the Lady Fatma to withdraw her 
opposition, if her life was dear to her ; but the Princess 
mocked at Khadija, and derided her powers. Then Khadija 


268 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


made an evil sign, and foretold that before the next morning 
light the Lady Fatma should know her power ; and surely 
enough, when her slaves sought to awaken her at dawn, she 
did not hear them, but lay as one still asleep. Then, when 
they had failed again and again to arouse her, they ran to 
tell the King of the matter, and of the words of Khadija. 
He sent for the woman, and threatened her with death, hut 
he could in no way wring from her a promise to remove the 
spell, except on condition that no punishment whatever 
should be inflicted on her. How the King had an enemy, 
a rebel chief, and it seemed to him that he might well be 
rid of him by this woman’s means, and he covenanted with 
her that, as the price of her life, she should not only remove 
the spell from the Lady Fatma, but also bring about the 
death of Zohrab Khan. And this was done.” 

“ And it was well done,” said the Queen, decisively, as 
the slave looked towards her with some anxiety. “The 
man was a traitor, and false to his salt.” 

“ But was it poison that Khadija had administered to the 
Lady Fatma 1 ” asked Georgia, too eager for information to 
turn aside to the moral question involved in the death of 
Zohrab Khan. “ And how did she counteract it 1 ” 

“ She had put the poison (very little is needed) into the 
Lady Fatma’s coffee, and in order to awaken her from the 
magic sleep she gave her a potion that she mixed. It was 
whispered among the slaves that it was made of the shav- 
ings of a porcupine’s teeth, mixed with the juice of a plant 
that is brought from the land of the poison-fish ; but the 
secret of it is known only to Khadija herself, and the anti- 
dote is useless unless it is administered in one particular 
way, but none of us who belonged to the Princess’s house- 
hold were- allowed to see what was done.” 

“This must be the very thing I want to know!” said 
Georgia. “And now, where is Khadija to be found?” 


POINTS OF VIEW. 


269 


“ In Fath-ud-Din’s fortress of Bir-ul-Malikat, where she 
watches over his daughter Zeynah,” said Nur Jahan, with 
lively contempt. “ The Eose of the World, they call the 
girl, and she is to marry Antar Khan, if Fath-ud-Din and 
the witch together can bring it about.” 

“But where is this fortress!” asked Georgia. 

“In the desert, on the way to Khemistan, There are 
two forts on two hills, Bir-ul-Malik and Bir-ul-Malikat. 
Bir-ul-Malik used to belong to my father, but Khadija dried 
up the water in the well by her arts, and the garrison 
almost died of thirst. My father complained to our lord 
the King, and he, thinking that the place was now useless, 
commanded Fath-ud-Din to give my father another town in 
exchange, and this he did, in another part of the kingdom. 
But as soon as my father’s men were gone from Bir-ul-Malik, 
Fath-ud-Din took possession of the place, and Khadija 
brought back the water into the well, and now he holds 
the only two forts and wells in all that region.” 

This was all the information that could be gained from 
the household at the Palace, and Georgia’s desire not to 
alarm her friends kept her from uttering aloud the thought 
that was in her mind, so that she allowed the subject to 
drop. During the remainder of the visit, however, and 
while she was being carried home in the litter, the deter- 
mination rose strong within her to find Khadija and get 
hold of the secret of that antidote, if she had to make an 
expedition into Ethiopia all by herself, after the Mission 
had returned to Khemistan, for the sake of doing so. 

After the farewell visit to the Palace, there was still 
another visit to be paid, and this was to Kur Jahan’s 
mother, who had returned with her husband to her own 
house, which might now be considered a place of compara- 
tive safety. The Princess sent her litter to the Mission, 
and Georgia made the transit in the usual seclusion, escorted 


270 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


by Dick and a number of armed servants. Arrived at the 
Grand Vizier’s house, Dick whiled away the time by a chat 
with Jahan Beg, and Georgia and Eahah were conducted 
to the harem, where the Princess received them with great 
kindness. There was even a touch of compassion in her 
manner, for which Georgia was at a loss to account until 
she learnt that ETur Jahan had told her mother of the 
doctor lady’s intended marriage. 

“Art thou well advised in this that thou art intending, 
0 doctor lady?” asked the Princess. “If it is true that 
thou art free to act in the matter according to thine own 
will, consider what thou doest before it is too late. My 
daughter tells me that thou hast no fear, since thy betrothed 
husband is an Englishman; but I know too well that all 
husbands are alike, for I also am married to an Englishman, 
although I was not aware of the truth until Eath-ud-Dih’s 
servants shouted it at me as they drove me from my own 
house a month ago.” 

“Perhaps,” suggested Georgia, diffidently, “the Amir 
Jahan Beg was not then acquainted with the customs of 
Ethiopia, which differ from ours, and he may have appeared 
unkind through ignorance.” 

“Hot so,” said the Princess, decisively, “for had that 
been all, my love would have won him to honour our 
customs for my sake,” and her hard eyes softened at the 
touch of some early memory. “Listen to me, 0 doctor 
lady, and judge between my lord and me. My first hus- 
band was very old, and when he died I mourned for him 
almost as for a father. To him I was a child and a play- 
thing — he was not unkind, but I was nothing to him, and I 
knew it. Then for some time I dwelt at the Palace, under 
the protection of my cousin the Queen. In those days 
every one was talking of the valour and wisdom of a 
new favourite of our lord the King, a captive from among 


POINTS OF VIEW. 


271 


the hillraen of the south, but a convert to the faith of 
Islam. He had repelled the hostile tribes on our northern 
border, and extended the kingdom beyond the utmost 
limits it had hitherto attained, and he was coming in 
triumph to Kubbet-ul-Haj to lay his spoils at the King’s 
feet. When that day came, the Queen and I, with our 
women, were watching the ceremony from our balcony 
above the throne. The slave-girls exclaimed at the vast- 
ness of the spoil, but I saw only the victor. Surely, I 
thought, he is as an angel of God ! While I watched him , 
the Queen came close to me and whispered in my ear, 
‘ That is the bridegroom our lord intends for thee, my 
Kafiza. Doth he please thee 1 ’ 0 doctor lady, I thought 

that I should die of joy ! On all sides I heard congratula- 
tions, but I congratulated myself most of all. Surely never 
did woman gain her heart’s desire more speedily, nor more 
speedily see it turn to dust and ashes when gained ! My 
nurse told me afterwards that on our wedding-night she 
had seen how things would fall out. I was waiting for my 
bridegroom, she with me, that she might remove my veil 
and leave him to behold my face. He came in without 
a salutation to either of us, and sat down beside me upon 
the divan. My nurse was angry, and said sharply, ‘ It is not 
the custom in Ethiopia to sit uninvited in the presence 
of the daughter of the King’s uncle.’ ^0 mother,’ he 
replied, ‘ I stand before no woman in Ethiopia, least of all 
my own wife.’ My nurse was much disturbed. ‘Wilt 
thou stiU marry him, Hafiza, my dove ? ’ she whispered, so 
that only I could hear ; ‘ the King will not suffer thee to be 
insulted.’ But I, thinking, ‘He must surely be a great 
prince in his own country, to speak thus to a king’s grand- 
daughter ! ’ motioned to her to lift my veil, saying, ‘ It is 
well, 0 my nurse ; go on.’ And thus was I married, and 
evil was my marriage. For in the night I would hear 


272 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


my lord speaking in his own tongue in his sleep, and I 
knew that he spoke of his own land. But more ; I learnt 
why nothing that I could do could please him, or bring his 
eyes to look upon me with favour. He had no love for me, 
he had married me at the King’s command, and I could not 
even hope that in time I might be able to win his affection, 
for always in the night he called upon the name of another 
woman.” 

“Oh, but how could you teU?” cried Georgia, quickly, 
appalled by this revelation of the tragedy which Jahan Beg 
had brought into the life of his slighted wife. “ You don’t 
understand English. You may have mistaken what he 
said.” The Lady Kafiza smiled. 

“ How could I tell, 0 doctor lady ? My heart told me. 
Though I might not understand the words, yet I could not 
mistake the tone. And thus my dream faded. But when 
my daughter Nur Jahan was bom, my lord left off crying 
out to the other woman, but he spoke more and more in his 
sleep of his own land. I knew it, 0 doctor lady, though I 
could not understand. And one day, sitting at his feet, 
with my baby in my arms, while he held up the hilt of his 
sword so that the light might flash upon the ^pwels and 
make the child laugh, I plucked up my courage and said, 
‘Does my lord long very sorely for his own land that 
he cries out for it every night*?’ I would have gone on 
to tell him that for his sake I was ready to leave my people 
and flee with him to his land, but his brow darkened, and 
he sprang up and seized me by the shoulder. ‘ Am I not 
safe in my own house 1 ’ he cried in a dreadful voice. ‘ Do 
they set my wife to spy upon me ? Woman, no one that 
has betrayed Jahan Beg lives another hour ! ’ What could 
I do but embrace his knees and kiss his feet, and entreat 
his mercy for my child’s sake, since he had no pity for me ? 
And he thrust me from him and went out. Never again 


POINTS OF VIEW. 


273 


did I speak to him of the words he uttered in sleep. But I 
loved him still, and cast about how I might win him to me. 
At last it seemed to me that there was indeed a reason for 
my ill-success, for I had given my lord no son. Then, after 
many tears shed in secret, and many struggles with myself, 
I said to him, ‘ Let my lord choose another wife, who may 
bear him sons, and I will welcome her into my house, and 
she shall be to me as a sister, for my lord’s sake, and her 
children as my own.’ This I did, thinking that he feared 
to supplant me because I was the King’s cousin — and 
indeed, all this house and the slaves were part of my 
dowry, and belong to me — but he laughed^ 0 doctor lady, 
he laughed at me, though I was giving him that which it 
broke my heart to offer, and he said, ‘ If I desired other 
wives, I would take them, but one is enough for me.’ Why 
should my lord visit upon me the evil deeds of that other 
woman, 0 doctor lady"? for I know that she must have 
deceived him. But from that day I sought no more to 
speak to my husband’s heart. And my daughter grew up ; 
but she was like him and his people, and not like me, and 
he loved her for that reason, so that sometimes I almost 
hated my own child. But that fe long ago, and I remember 
it to-day only as a warning to thee.” 

Georgia’s eyes were full of tears as she took her leave. 
She had bestowed all her pity hitherto on Kur Jahan, but 
now she felt more deeply for her mother, whose love, 
passionate and unrequited, had been to her only a source of 
pain. The wrong which Jahan Beg had done had been 
visited not only upon himself, but upon his innocent wife 
and daughter, and it could not be redressed. 

Sweetheart,” said Dick, anxiously, as he helped Georgia 
out of the litter on their return, and assisted her to remove 
the enshrouding burTta^ “ you look awfully fagged. Come 
and have a turn round the courtyard with me.” 

s 


274 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


‘‘Do you know, Dick,” she said, looking round at him, 
“ that I am being advised continually not to marry you 1 ” 

“No?” said Dick, highly diverted. “What a joke : 
Who is the faithful warner — young Anstruther?” 

“ Dick ! As if I would ever let him say a word against 
you to me ! No, it is all my Ethiopian ladies. They are 
firmly of opinion that marriage is a failure.” 

“I hope you oppose them with all the ardour of a new 
convert, then?” 

“ I can’t convince them, unfortunately. Their arguments 
are unanswerable, they are their own husbands.” 

“ And you have no favourable counter-experience to draw 
upon?” 

“No. I have to defend you on trust, Dick.” 

“ Poor little girl ! and that’s very hard upon you, isn’t it, 
when you know so little of me, and what you do know is 
80 bad?” 


CHAPTEE XVHL 

RETREAT OUT OFF. 

Two or three days after Georgia’s visit to the Lady 
Nafiza, messengers from Eustam Khan reached the city, 
announcing that his expedition had been entirely successful, 
and that he was bringing hack with him the servants and 
baggage-animals of which the travellers had been deprived. 
This was good news, and once more preparations for depar- 
ture occupied all those in the Mission. But before the 
triumphant general had returned to the capital, and while 
Stratford and Dick were still superintending the packing of 


KETREAT CUT OFF. 


276 


cases which it was necessary to pile up in the front court- 
yard until the means of transport arrived, Mr Hicks looked 
in to bid farewell to his English friends. His mules and 
camels had not been impounded, and he was therefore able 
to start on the morrow. Stratford was somewhat surprised 
that he did not defer his journey for a few days, and ask 
permission to attach himself to the Mission caravan ; hut Mr 
Hicks explained that he preferred to travel in comfort, and 
not to find all the inns occupied, and the markets cleared at 
every stopping-place along the route, by the train of the 
British Envoy. He did not add that he was calculating on 
bringing to Khemistan the first news respecting the Mission 
that had arrived since the interruption of communications, 
or that he anticipated driving an excellent bargain for him- 
self and the paper he represented by the sale of the unique 
information he possessed ; but he had a proposal to make to 
Stratford which rather surprised him. 

“ I guess you calculate on being able to make tracks in 
safety now, Mr Stratford, but I don’t know that I am quite 
with you there. I allow that you have had almighty luck, 
and that you have plucked the flower success from the 
nettle danger in a style I admire. A month ago I would 
have bet my bottom dollar that you would never leave 
Kubbet-ul-Haj without conducting another high-class fun- 
eral in that burial-lot of yours, and reading the Episcopal 
service over the old man, any way. But there’s real grit in 
you, sir, and I don’t mind making you a present of that 
acknowledgment before the general public throughout the 
universe gets hold of it in the columns of the ‘ Crier.’ Still, 
I don’t consider that the prospect before you is exactly a 
shining one. It would have taxed Moses himself to fix 
your return trip satisfactorily. Once you get outside these 
waUs, you wiU have to defend the whole outfit by the light 
of nature, for you have never been on the Plains, any of you. 


276 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ Still,” said Stratford, with some coldness, “ Major North 

is an experienced soldier, and Mr Anstnither ” 

Is an amusing young cuss. I beg your pardon for tak- 
ing the words out of your mouth, Mr Stratford, but I can 
reckon up those two boys as well as you can. Major North 
is a pragmatic piece of wood, that woulcj. stand to be cut to 

•pieces rather than budge an inch ” 

“ Excuse me if I interrupt you in my turn, Mr Hicks. 
Major North is my friend, and if I hear any more disparag- 
ing remarks about him I shall feel bound to turn you over to 
Miss Keeling. She would know how to resent them properly.** 
“ You are right, sir, she would. And that brings me to 
my point. Thinking over your position here, and the prob- 
ability of the King’s turning nasty (for I guess there are 
few crowned heads that would care to send away in peace 
a man that had driven them to change their minds by the 
gentle compulsion of a cocked six-shooter), I concluded this 
morning to offer to escort the ladies to the frontier. I travel 
lightly, and stand to cover the ground much faster than your 
big camel-train, and there is no animosity against me. If 
they are once safe in Khemistan you can come on behind 
with the old man and the baggage, and feel easy in your 
minds. Now don’t get riled and say things you’ll be sorry 
for afterwards, Mr Stratford. I am not impugning your 
prudence, nor yet your powers of fighting. We have to 
face facts. It gives any one who is inclined to be trouble- 
some a colossal puU over you that you have the ladies to 
look after, and if they were put in safety it would diminish 
at once your anxiety and your liability to attack.” 

“ What do you think North will say to this ? ” 

“ Who bosses this show, Mr Stratford 1 If Major North 
displays an unbecoming spirit, put him under arrest. You 
are too sweetly reasonable with the boys ever to do much 
good with *em.” 


RETKEAT CUT OFF. 


277 


** But you don’t imagine that the ladies would go 1 ” 

That is for them to decide. Give them their choice, 
any way. I guess if they won’t go, they won’t ; but let ’em 
have the chance.” 

Stimulated by the equitable spirit displayed by Mr Hicks, 
Stratford broached the subject to the ladies during tiffin, 
and was not surprised to find that they received it with 
most ungrateful scorn. Lady Haigh simply expressed her 
determination to remain with Sir Dugald at all hazards 
(a resolution which Mr Hicks, in a talk with Stratford after- 
wards, unfeelingly likened to that of Mrs Micawber), and 
Georgia refused with much emphasis to desert her patient. 
To the no small amusement of Mr Hicks, he discovered, 
from a piece of by -play which attracted his notice, that 
Dick, once fully assured that she would not go, was dis- 
posed to suggest, with an air of superior wisdom, that it 
might be wiser if she did. 

“ You know, Georgie,” pathetically, “ that I should feel 
ever so much happier if I knew you were in safety.” 

“ My dear Dick,” solemnly, nothing would induce me 
to go, under any circumstances.” 

“ Hot if I told you that it was my wish?” tenderly. 

“ If you are wise, Dick, you won’t attempt to bring into 
play in this case any authority you may imagine that you 
possess,” warningly ; “ nor in any other case in creation, 
either,” interjected Mr Hicks, sotto voce. 

Thus it happened that Mr Hicks started on his journey 
alone, and that the ladies formed part of the procession 
which filed out of the Khemistan gate of Kubbet-ul-Haj 
about a week later. A comfortable litter, carried by two 
mules, had been procured for Sir Dugald, but only the 
household servants were aware of the nature of his illness, 
or knew how completely it incapacitated him for ordinary 
life, and Ismail Bakhsh and his subordinates formed a body- 


278 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


guard .round the litter. It was their business to keep any 
idea of the truth from reaching the camel-men and mule- 
drivers, who were regarded with a certain amount of sus- 
picion on account of their long separation from the rest of 
the party. One or two of the servants who had originally 
accompanied the Mission from Khemistan had died during 
the interval ; several, according to the testimony of their 
jailers, had succeeded in making their escape, and the places 
of these had been filled up by Ethiopians, so that it was 
just as well to allow them to imagine that although the ter- 
rible Envoy was so ill as to be unable to mount his horse, 
and must be carried in a litter like a woman, yet he still 
directed the course of affairs, and gave orders which Strat- 
ford merely carried into effect. Jahan Beg accompanied the 
travellers for the first few miles of their journey, and parted 
from them on the crest of a rise from which the first view 
of Kubbet-ul-Haj could be obtained by those approaching 
the city. 

“I wish I could have gone with you as far as the 
frontier,” he had said to Stratford, “ but I daren’t leave 
the city just now. I believe I am on the brink of discover- 
ing a very neat plot between the Scythian agent, who ought 
to be across the border by this time, but is supposed to be 
detained by illness at a village only a day’s journey off, and 
Fath-ud-Din’s adherents. I think I have tracked nearly all 
the participators, and when I am ready I shall give them 
a surprise. The plan is, of course, to get rid of me and 
destroy the English treaty. By the way, I hope you are 
careful of your copy. Accidents will happen, and if that 
should be stolen or destroyed, it would be a big score for 
them. If you should chance to be detained anywhere by 
sickness or a difficulty in obtaining provisions, you will 
do well to send on some one you can trust, with ten or 
twelve well-armed men, to make a dash for Eahmat-UUah, 


RETREAT CUT OFF. 


279 


and put the treaty in safety. Our copy, of course, is safe as 
long as I am, but no one can tell how long that will he. All 
Fath-ud-Din’s fortresses are refusing to yield except to force, 
which is another thing that makes me think they anticipate 
a speedy return to the old state of affairs, and I shall be 
obliged to send Eustam Khan with the army to reduce each 
one in turn. You will have to pass not far from two of 
them ; but if your guides are trustworthy and know their 
business, they ought to take you by without even coming 
in sight of them. One of the forts ought to be mine, which 
makes its resistance all the more irritating. Fath-ud-Din 
did me out of it with the help of some devilry practised by 
the old witch whom he keeps to get rid of his friends for 
him. Perhaps I shall get it back now. Well, good-bye ; 
keep an eye on your guides and a tight hand over your men 
and the escort, and when you get the welcome you deserve 
at home, don’t quite forget the man who disappeared.” 

He shook hands with the rest of the party, and turned 
away abruptly to begin his ride back to the city. . As 
Georgia looked after him, something of pity rose in her 
heart. After all, the only tragedies in Kubbet-ul-Haj were 
not those of the older women with their woful past, and 
Kur Jahan with her comfortless future. There was tragedy 
also in the story of the man who for life’s sake had given 
up all that ennobled life, and who had gained so much that 
he found was valueless, and lost so much that he now knew 
was invaluable. Alone in the great cruel faithless city, his 
only memorial of the visit of his friends the rough tablet 
which marked Dr Headlam’s grave, his only trustworthy 
companion the wife whose love he had slighted, his daily 
occupation the search after any means by which he might 
succeed in maintaining his position on the slippery height 
he had reached — there was little reason to envy Jahan Beg. 

The march which now began was by no means devoid of 


280 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


incident, but during the first few days, while the caravan 
was still in touch with the city, everything went well. It 
was when the dried-up pasture -lands and the scattered 
villages had all been left behind, and only the sands of the 
desert were to be seen on every side, that the troubles of 
the Mission began again. Their commencement was marked 
by a small but alarming mutiny among the escort of irregu- 
lar cavalry, who accused their captain of appropriating to 
his own use half of the bakhshish promised them as a reward 
for their services, which had been handed over to him at 
the beginning of the journey for distribution among his 
troopers. It had been arranged that each man should receive 
the remainder of his share when Fort Eahmat-Ullah was 
reached, but they demanded that it should be paid down 
immediately, if they were to escort the Mission any further. 
To yield to this attempt at extortion was manifestly im- 
possible, since there was nothing to prevent the men’s 
demanding extra gifts until the travellers were bereft even 
of the necessaries of life ; but nothing less than a complete 
surrender to their wishes would satisfy the mutineers. The 
English met informally in Stratford’s tent to consider the 
situation (it was early in the morning, and the preparations 
for the day’s march were interrupted by this untoward 
event), and admitted to their councils the Ethiopian captain, 
who had brought the news that the men refused to move 
until their demands were conceded. 

“ If we don’t stop this at once,” said Dick, “ things will 
get serious. Stratford, I should be glad if you would leave 
the matter to me to deal with.” 

“By all means,” said Stratford; “but what do you intend 
todol” 

“Make an example of the chaps that are stirring them 
np,” said Dick, grimly, taking out his revolver and making 
sure that all the chambers were loaded. 


RETREAT CUT OFF. 


281 


“ But we shall have to get hold of them first,” objected 
Stratford. 

“ Exactly. That’s what I’m going to do.” 

“ Stuff ! You are not going down among them alone, I 
can tell you.” 

“We can’t waste more than one man over this business. 
Look there,” and he threw a significant glance at the trem- 
bling Ethiopian captain, “ you can see what he thinks of it. 
I’ll take Ismail Bakhsh with me. Lend him your revolver.” 

“ Oh, Dick, what are you going to do ^ ” asked Georgia 
in astonishment, as she met Dick outside the tent, revolver 
in hand, with Ismail Bakhsh stalking after him with inimi- 
table dignity and determination, his right hand thurst into 
his girdle. 

“ Never mind. Go back into your tent, and don’t show 
yourselves, any of you,” returned Dick, sharply. She obeyed 
without hesitation ; but since he had not forbidden her to 
watch him, she took advantage of a hole in the canvas to 
gain a view of all that passed. From the sandhill on which 
the tents were pitched she could see the soldiers in their 
camp below, gathered round an orator who was haranguing 
them, while no preparations for starting were visible. She 
saw Dick march calmly into the throng, elbowing his way 
through the men with little ceremony, and dislodge the 
orator forcibly from the unsteady rostrum of biscuit-boxes 
which he occupied. When she next caught a glimpse of 
him he was on the outskirts of the crowd again, holding 
his prisoner by the rags which represented his collar, and 
propelling him vigorously in the direction of the tents, 
assisting his progress now and again by a hearty kick. The 
rest of the troop appear to have been stupefied by the sud- 
denness of the onslaught, but just as Dick was free of the 
throng, Georgia saw another man leap up upon a box and 
call out to his fellows to rescue their leader. The spell was 


282 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


broken, and there was an ugly rush, while weapons were 
hastily caught up. 

“Arrest that man, Ismail Eakhsh,” said Dick, without 
looking round ; “ and if he won’t come quietly, shoot him.” 

Ismail Eakhsh obeyed in perfect silence, and led his 
captive up the hill after Dick, the troopers once more 
making way for him without attempting to use their weapons. 
Arrived at the summit, Dick paused and looked back. 

“ Dismiss ! ” he said, in a sharp, harsh voice such as 
Georgia had never heard from him before, and the muti- 
neers, understanding the order by a species of intuition, 
dispersed quietly, while Dick and Ismail Eakhsh passed 
on to the tent with their prisoners. 

“Georgie, what is the matter?” cried Lady Haigh, as 
Georgia dropped the canvas flap with a gasping cry, and 
staggered back against the tent pole. 

“ Only that I have just watched Dick take his life in his 
hand,” she explained, breathlessly. “For the last ten min- 
utes I have been thinking that I should never see him alive 
again.” 

In Stratford’s tent a hasty and extremely informal court- 
martial was held immediately for the purpose of trying the 
two prisoners, and here the management of affairs passed 
out of Dick’s hands. He was in favour of shooting both 
men on the spot, as an encouragement to the rest, but Strat- 
ford shrank from the idea ; and the piteous entreaties of the 
Ethiopian captain, who pointed out that if such a sentence 
were carried into execution his life would not be worth a 
moment’s purchase when he started to return home alone 
with his troops, were allowed to prevail upon the side of 
mercy. It was difiicult to devise a suitable punishment 
under the circumstances; but finally the two men were 
deprived of the semblance of uniform they possessed, and 
driven out into the desert on foot by the servants, provided 


RETREAT CUT OFF. 


283 


with a meagre allowance of bread and water. They would 
not starve, unless they wilfully remained where they were 
instead of retracing their steps along the road they had 
come, but it was probable that they would have an ex- 
tremely unpleasant experience before they found their way 
back to the habitations of men. 

The lesson proved to be a sufficient one, and the troopers, 
with sullen faces, returned to their duty, imbued with an 
added respect for Dick and an increased hatred and con- 
tempt for their own commander. They made no parade of 
either of these sentiments during the day’s march, but the 
net result of them was visible the next morning, when no 
soldiers could be found. They had ridden away during 
the night from their bivouac on the outskirts of the camp, 
leaving their watch-fires alight to deceive any observers, 
and in his tent the body of their captain, pierced with 
many wounds. 

“ A wound for each man,” said Ismail Bakhsh, contem- 
plating the dead man with mingled curiosity and disgust ; 
“ and see here, the rebels have left a gift for my lord.” 

He lifted from the spot where it had been laid at the 
side of the corpse a long curved dagger, the handle and 
sheath of which were of silver, curiously chased and en- 
crusted with turquoises. A scrap of paper partially burnt, 
which had apparently been picked up after being used as 
a pipe-light and thrown aside, was wrapped round the 
lower part of the blade, and a few words in Arabic char- 
acters were traced upon it. 

‘‘ * To the General Dik,’ ” read Ismail Bakhsh with 
interest. ‘‘ It is the dagger which my lord admired when 
he saw it worn the other day by one of those forsworn ones. 
At least they know a man when they see one, evil though 
they are.” 

“ You can bring the thing to my tent,’^ said Dick. “ I 


284 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


will keep it as a curiosity. And now, Ismail Bakhsh, we 
must see this poor wretch decently buried before we go on. 
You and your men had better perform the proper cere- 
monies, and we will fire a volley over his grave by way of 
giving him a military funeral.” 

Leaving the scene of the tragedy, he communicated to 
Stratford his impressions of the state of affairs, and they 
agreed to minimise as far as possible the importance of 
what had occurred when in the presence of the ladies. 
Accordingly, they talked cheerfully of the advantage of 
being rid of the escort of a mutinous and discontented 
body of troops, and said nothing of the unwelcome thought 
which had suggested itself to Dick, that the mutineers 
might have taken it into their heads to ride on in advance, 
so as to lie in wait for the caravan at some awkward corner. 
The body of the unfortunate Ethiopian captain was buried 
with military honours, and the cavalcade, now much dimin- 
ished in numbers, took the road again. 

The next difiiculty that confronted the leaders of the 
party was caused by the action of the guides, who came to 
Stratford that evening and begged that he would allow the 
usual order of the march to be changed for the next few 
days, so that the journey should be carried on at night, and 
the necessary halt take place during the hours of daylight. 
The Mission, they said, was now approaching the region 
dominated by Eath-ud-Din’s two fortresses, Bir-ul-Malik 
and Bir-ul-Malikat, and it was all-important that its passage 
should not be perceived by the watchmen upon the walls. 
This appeared at first sight very reasonable, and Stratford 
and Dick, having heard what the men had to say, and 
dismissed them, found themselves somewhat at a loss as 
to their answer. 

“ If we were sure that we can trust these fellows,” said 
Stratford, “ it would be all right, but Jahan Beg warned 


KETREAT CUT OFF. 


285 


US against them particularly. Then, again, why didn’t they 
state when we engaged them that it might be advisable to 
make night marches for part of the way, at any rate while 
we are in the sphere of influence of the garrisons of these 
forts?” 

“ Oh, as to that,” said Dick, “ no doubt they would say 
that they didn’t bargain for the soldiers mutinying and 
deserting us, and thought that under their escort we should 
be safe enough, even in the daytime. But I don’t like this 
nocturnal idea for two reasons. We should be quite unable 
to identify the features of the country at night, and they 
might lead us astray without our discovering it ; and more- 
over, if the mutineers or Fath-ud-Din’s friends should 
happen to mean mischief, a night-attack on the column 
as it marched would simply smash us up. We should 
have more chance in daylight, or even in case of a night- 
attack on the camp, for the baggage gives us a certain 
amount of cover when it is properly piled and the beasts 
picketed.” 

“ But on the other hand, if the guides are trustworthy, 
we are doing a very mad thing in rejecting their advice.” 

Quite so ; we have a choice of evils. But if you 
remember, Jahan Beg was of opinion that the fellows 
ought to be able to take us past the forts without our 
even coming in sight of them, so that this exaggerated 
carefulness seems unnecessary.” 

“ Then you are for going on as we are ? It’s an awful 
risk, jS'orth, if things should go wrong.” 

“ I have more at stake than you have, old man, and you 
may depend upon it that nothing but the firmest conviction 
that this course is the safest would make me advocate it. 
Of course, you boss this outfit, as Hicks would say ” 

“ Oh, nonsense ! ” said Stratford. “ I am not going to 
back half an opinion of my own against all your experience. 


286 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


We will stick to our morning and afternoon marches, 
ITorth.” 

The decision thus reached was duly communicated to the 
guides, and received by them with sulky acquiescence. The 
next day’s march was uneventful; but the aspect of the 
country was gradually changing, and becoming more rocky, 
although it remained as barren and parched - looking as 
before. The halt that night was made at the foot of a 
steep cliff, which afforded protection in the rear, while a 
breastwork of baggage and saddles, arranged in the form 
of a semicircle, gave some guarantee against a successful 
attack in front. Again the hours of darkness passed without 
alarm, but the equanimity of the party was disturbed at 
breakfast by a domestic misfortune. Eahah, in floods of 
tears, came to inform her mistress that the white cat was 
lost. On the journey Colleen Bawn was always Rahah’s 
special care, travelling on the same mule, and occupying the 
pannier which contained Miss Keeling’s toilet requisites, 
and which was balanced by the maid in the opposite one. 
On this particular morning Rahah had sought her charge in 
vain. She knew that the kitten was generally to be found 
by Georgia’s side at breakfast- time, laying a white paw on 
its mistress’s wrist with dignified insistence when it had 
reason to imagine itself forgotten; but this morning the 
tit-bits remained unclaimed on Georgia’s plate. Rahah 
had searched the whole camp, she said, and Ismail Bakhsh’s 
son Ibrahim had helped her, but they could not find the 
white cat ; and would the doctor lady request the gentlemen 
to stop the loading, and set all the men free to look for it 1 
They had sworn to find the doctor lady’s pet if it took 
them all day to do it, and they knew that the little gentle- 
man (this was the undignified name by which Fitz was 
invariably known among the servants) would help them. 

“ I am afraid we can hardly sacrifice a day for such a 


RETREAT CUT OFF. 


287 


purpose,” said Stratford, wavering between politeness and a 
sense of his responsibility as leader, as Georgia looked across 
at him ; but Dick showed no such hesitation. 

“Miss Keeling would never think of your doing such a 
thing, Stratford. To hang about here, of all places, while 
Aiistruther and the servants looked for a lost cat, would be 
a piece of criminal folly — one might almost say wickedness. 
We can’t risk the lives of the whole party for the sake of a 
cat. Here, ayah — take another good look about while we 
finish breakfast, and if you haven’t found the beast when 
we’re ready to start, we must leave it behind.” 

Georgia’s face flushed as she stirred her coffee deliberately. 
She had no wish to risk the lives of the whole party by in- 
sisting on delay, but it was not Dick’s place to say so for 
her. It looked as though he had no confidence in her, that 
he should not allow her even the semblance of a choice, and 
confidence was what she demanded above all things. It 
flashed upon him presently, noticing her silence, that he had 
hurt her, and he bent towards her to say in a low voice — 

“ I say, Georgie, you don’t mind much, do you 'i Are you 
awfully keen on the little beast ? I’ll buy you dozens when 
we get to Khemistan. But you wouldn’t have us waste 
time now ? ” 

“ You have quite put it out of my power even if I wished 
it,” returned Georgia, coldly ; and Fitz, at the other side of 
the makeshift table, was filled with a sudden and violent 
hatred against Dick. It was not the first time that this feel- 
ing had entered his mind — in fact, it merely slumbered inter- 
mittently, and awoke whenever Dick and Georgia had a 
difference of opinion, no matter which side was in the right. 
Fitz had no desire to quarrel with Georgia’s choice, for his 
loyalty was too unquestioning to admit a doubt of her 
wisdom in the matter ; but that the highly-favoured man 
who was honoured by the love of this peerless lady should 


288 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


be so blind to the grace bestowed upon him as actually to 
contradict and even to bully her (this was Fitz’s rendering of 
what he saw) was only an awful illustration of the depths to 
which human depravity could descend. At such times as 
this all the boy’s faculties were on the alert to render some 
service, however great or small, to his lady, which might 
assure her that even though Major North possessed no duo 
sense of the overwhelming privileges she had granted to him, 
there were others who still counted it an honour to be able 
to anticipate her least wish. It is slightly pathetic to be 
obliged to record that Georgia accepted his good offices 
without at all appreciating the sentiment from which they 
sprang — indeed, so ungrateful is human nature that, had 
she discovered it, she would probably have rejected them 
with contumely, and poured out the vials of her wrath on 
the head of the luckless youth who dared to criticise Dick 
— and that she valued the slightest attention from her lover 
far above all that Fitz could offer, in spite of the much 
greater disinterestedness of the latter’s endeavours. But 
this only proved to Fitz more clearly still her excellence, 
as exemplified by her absolute loyalty to the man of her 
choice, and stimulated him to continue to render his un- 
selfish services. 

The efforts of Eahah and her fellow -servants to find 
Colleen Bawn proving ineffectual, the march began at the 
usual time, although not until after Dick had personally 
conducted Georgia to the top of the cliff, that she might see 
whether the kitten had found its way thither ; but the 
rough scramble to the summit and the difficult descent were 
alike undertaken in vain. Doubtless, said Eahah, with an 
indignant glance at Dick, the white cat had curled itself up 
in some cleft of the rocks and gone to sleep, and it would 
be easy for the men to discover it if they searched system- 
atically, although a cursory look round was useless. But 


RETREAT CUT OFF. 


289 


no delay was allowed, and Eahah settled herself mournfully 
in her pannier, and snubbed Ibrahim whenever he came 
near her — a course of treatment which, while it failed to 
irritate him, proved most serviceable in working off her own 
bad temper. 

Important though this storm in a tea-cup was to the two 
or three persons immediately interested, the leaders of the 
party had far weightier matters to consider. The march 
had lasted some two hours and a half when Stratford, who 
had been riding at the head of the caravan with one of the 
guides, turned back and joined Dick, whose post, when he 
was not on duty, was naturally at Georgia’s side. 

“What do you think of the look of the weather, Horthl” 

“ I don’t like it. See what a dirty sort of colour the sky 
has turned. I should say we were in for a storm.” 

“ That’s just what these fellows say. A sand-storm is 
what they prophesy; but that’s all rot, I suppose.” 

“Oh no. We can get up very tolerable imitations of 
the real thing in these desert tracts, but they are not 
particularly frequent. However, the guides ought to 
know ; and if they say there’s one coming, we had better 
look out for some sort of shelter.” 

“The guides make out that there’s a ridge of rocks 
somewhere about which would protect us to a certain 
extent, but they don’t seem very sure of their ground. 
The ridge might be any distance between ten minutes’ 
walk and half a day’s journey ahead of us, from all I 
can discover.” 

“ We’ll send young Anstruther and two men on in front 
to reconnoitre a little, while you and I and Kustendjian 
see what we can get out of these fellows. Why, where is 
the child gonel Hi, Ismail Bakhsh, where is the chota 
sahib r* 

With a face as ingenuous as that of the youthful Wash- 


290 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


ington when lie resisted the historic temptation to men- 
dacity, Ismail Bakhsh replied that he had last seen the 
little gentleman at the rear of the column, not thinking it 
necessary to add that it was at a considerable distance to 
the rear, and that Fitz was riding in the opposite direction 
to that in which the column was proceeding. 

“ Well, we can’t wait to fetch him up from the rear,” 
said Dick, looking hack over the long caravan. “I will 
ride on and do the scouting, Stratford, while you and 
Kustendjian cross-examine the guides. It would be just 
as well to pass the word along for the men to step out a 
little faster, don’t you think ? ” 

Stratford agreed, and the pace of the caravan was a good 
deal accelerated in a spasmodic kind of way. Dick and his 
followers returned from their reconnaissance in a little over 
half an hour, by which time the gloomy hue of the sky was 
much intensified, and the air had become quite hazy. 
Stinging particles of grit were driven against the face as 
the riders moved along, and sudden gusts of wind, coming 
short and sharp, now from one point of the compass and 
now from another, were chasing the sand hither and thither 
in little eddying whirls. 

“ We have found the place ! ” cried Dick, as he rode up. 
“Pass the word to hurry, Ismail Bakhsh j it’s not much 
further on. And bring up one of the camels with the tents. 
We must get up some sort of shelter for the ladies.” 

The ordinary dignified pace of the caravan was now 
exchanged for a helter-skelter mode of progression, which 
was extremely trying to the mind of Dick, when he saw 
the confusion which was engendered in the ranks by the 
haste he had recommended. It was more like a disorderly 
race than peaceful travelling, and the different bodies of 
serv^ints were inextricably mixed up. 

“ What a gorgeous chance for the enemy if they saw us 


RETREAT CUT OFF. 


291 


now ! ” he said to himself. “ The only thing is that they 
are probably just as much taken up with the storm as 
we are.” 

iTo long time elapsed before the friendly ridge of rocks 
was reached, and the tent erected under its shelter. Sir 
Dugald was carried inside, Lady Haigh and Georgia and 
their maids followed, and the canvas was fastened down 
tightly. Stratford and Dick, remaining outside, did their 
best to create some sort of order out of the chaos which 
surged around them as the servants and baggage-animals 
came pouring up. There was no time to unload the mules 
and camels, but they were brought as close under the rocks 
as possible, and the men found shelter among them. When 
the last straggler had come in, Stratford turned suddenly 
to Dick. 

Where can Anstruther be % ” he said. 

Before Dick could hazard an opinion, the storm burst 
upon them with a roar, and they were glad to follow the 
example of the guides, and hide their faces from the blast. 
The wind shrieked among the rocks, and swept down with 
tremendous force upon the closely-packed mass of men and 
animals, carrying with it quantities of sand and minute 
pebbles, which had a blinding effect upon the eyes. Inside 
the tent the women waited in hot stifling darkness, with 
the fine sand making its way in at every seam and covering 
everything. During what seemed hours they heard no 
sounds but the whistling and howling of the wind without. 
Then there arose a chorus of shouts and yells and curses, 
mingled with the grunting of camels and the shrill squeals 
of protesting mules. Some kind of fierce struggle seemed 
to be going on outside j but it was impossible to discover 
its nature, for the fastenings of the tent refused to yield to 
the efforts of the prisoners, and no one answered their calls 
or appeals for information. At last, just as Georgia drew 


292 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


out a pair of surgical scissors and began deliberately to 
cut a slit in the tough double canvas, the flap of the tent 
was thrown back, and Stratford entered, bare-headed and 
breathless. 

“ The beasts have stampeded,” he explained, “ and the 
guides and servants are all gone after them. We have 
been rushing hither and thither, catching and securing any 
animal we could get hold of, and shouting to the men to 
keep quiet and not to give chase. But we might as well 
have spoken to the rocks. Ismail Bakhsh and his men 
and the house-servants were the only ones that listened ; 
the rest all rushed away after their own animals. Of 
course that only drove them further ofif, and they must be 
scattered over the whole country round by this time. I 
fear we must have lost most of the baggage, for what we 
have saved is a very small amount, and strikingly miscel- 
laneous in character. But no doubt the men will manage 
to find their way back here by degrees, and then ” 

A sudden exclamation from Dick interrupted him, and 
he stepped outside. Lady Haigh and Georgia followed, 
only to be pushed back into the tent, and desired angrily 
to cover their faces with their hurkas. Facing the little 
knot of startled men and frightened baggage-animals which 
now represented the great Mission caravan were a troop of 
horsemen, who had taken up, under cover of the storm and 
the stampede, such a position as to preclude any attempt to 
escape on the part of those they were hemming ia 


THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION. 


293 


CHAPTEK XIX. 

THE VALUE OP A REPUTATION. 

** Get the men together while I try a parley with these 
fellows,” said Stratford to Dick, when he took in the facts 
of the situation. “ They are not our friends the mutineers, 
at any rate.” 

“ My lord’s said Ismail Bakhsh, stepping up with 
a salute, and offering Stratford his helmet, which he had 
found caught in a crevice of the rocks. Stratford put it 
on, and, carrying his riding-whip carelessly in his hand, ad- 
vanced to meet the strangers, who had remained motionless 
on their horses since Dick had first caught sight of them. 

“ Peace be upon you ! ” he said as he approached them. 

“ And upon thee be peace ! ” responded an old man, who 
appeared to be the leader of the party. “ My lord is one 
of the envoys of the Queen of England to our lord the 
King?” 

“ I am temporarily in command of the Mission, owing to 
the illness of the Envoy,” answered Stratford. “ To whom 
have I the honour of speaking 1 ” 

“My lord’s servant is Abd-ur-Kahim, Governor of the 
fortress of Bir-ul-Malik for our lord the King.” 

“Kot for the late Grand Vizier, Fath-ud-Din, then?” 

“ How should that be so ? My lord knows that another 
now holds the King’s signet. Surely his servant only re- 
tains his office until he be confirmed or superseded in it by 
orders from Kubbet-ul-Haj. But the only orders he has 
received as yet have concerned the Mission of the English 
Queen, and they have commanded him to do all in his 
power to help it, and to facilitate its return journey.” 


294 


PEACE WITH HONOUE. 


“ Then the orders have arrived in the nick of time,” said 
Stratford. “ A little assistance will be of great use to us 
in our present circumstances. Our baggage-animals were 
alarmed by the storm, and are scattered about, and if your 
soldiers would help us to get them together again it would 
be a great boon. But will you not dismount and eat and 
drink with us, Abd-ur-Kahim ? We have but little to offer, 
yet it is our delight to share it with a friend.” 

“Nay, but my lord and all his company shall eat and 
drink with me,” was the hospitable reply. “ In Bir-ul- 
Malik there is room for the whole number, and they shall 
rest in the fortress this night in peace, and refresh their 
souls before starting again on their journey. I will send 
out my young men to seek for the camels of my lord, and 
in the morning his caravan shall be as great as when he left 
Kubbet-ul-Haj a week ago.” 

“Yet let Abd-ur-Eahim first honour our poor tents by 
condescending to eat bread and drink water with us,” urged 
Stratford. 

Again the old man shook his head. “ Not so, my lord. 
Surely when my watchmen cried from the towers that 
there was a great company out on the plain, fleeing towards 
the rocks for shelter from the storm, and I knew that they 
must be the servants of the English Queen, I vowed a vow 
that I would neither eat bread nor drink water until I had 
brought the Englishmen into my house, that they might 
rest themselves and be refreshed at my table, and afterwards 
depart in peace.” 

“ And how did you know that we were the servants of 
the English Queen 1” asked Stratford, endeavouring, with 
considerable success, to exhibit in his tones no trace of sus- 
picion, but merely a natural desire for information. 

“ The orders I received had warned me of the approach 
of my lord and his servants,” replied Abd-ur-Eahim, guile- 


THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION. 


295 


lessly, and the watchmen told me that among those whom 
they saw were men with strange head-gear, such as our 
people who have journeyed into Khemistan have seen the 
English lords wear. But will not my lord make haste to 
call his young men together, and hid them follow him into 
the fortress 1 The feast is being prepared, and the best 
rooms are ready for my lord and his servants and his house- 
hold, and only the guests are wanting.” 

“ I must take counsel with my friends before I accept 
your kind invitation,” said Stratford. “ We are in haste, and 
it may he that we cannot venture to lose even the remaining 
half of this day’s march.” 

“Nay, my lord,” exclaimed Abd-ur-Kahim, in the eager- 
ness of his hospitahty, “ far be it from me to compel any to 
become my guests by force — and yet, sooner than allow my 
lord to depart without honouring by his presence my humble 
roof, I would command my young men to bring him and his 
servants to my dwelling whether they would or no.” 

“ One might indeed say that yours was a pressing invita- 
tion, Abd-ur-Eahim,” said Stratford, smiling good-humour- 
edly as he turned to go back to the rest ; but there was no 
smile upon his face when he reached them. 

Dick stepped forward to meet him, and they walked a 
few paces aside, out of earshot of the little band of servants 
whom Dick had posted in such a way as to protect the tent 
and the remaining baggage-animals. 

“ Well ? ” asked Dick, eagerly. 

“ Oh, he’s a deep one ! He means to get us up to the 
fort by hook or by crook, and the only question is, shall we 
go peaceably or wait for him to take us ? ” 

“ He has been looking out for us, then 1 ” 

“ Undoubtedly. He says he was warned of our approach 
by orders from Kubbet-ul-Haj. Now you know that the 
King and Jahan Beg never anticipated that we should halt 


296 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


anywhere near Bir-ul-Malik, so that the orders can^t have 
come from them. They must have been sent by Fath-ud- 
Din or some of his people, and very likely Abd-ur-Eahim 
has had additional information since then from the muti- 
neers. We can’t hope that he is merely hospitable and 
friendly. If we go into the fort, we go with our eyes 
open.” 

“ But hasn’t he showed his hand at all ? ” 

“ Hot a hit. He is all blarney and butter, only anxious 
for the honour of our presence and so on, hut he means 
business.” 

“ But we can be all blarney and butter too, and merely 
regret our inability to pay him a visit, and pass on. If he 
doesn’t try force, it’s quite evident that he hasn’t any to try. 
He is doing his best to allure us to put ourselves into his 
power, trusting in the simplicity evidenced by your child- 
like and bland demeanour, and there is no doubt that if he 
once got us inside the fort we should he in something like 
a hole. But as it is, we can merely bow and say good- 
day.” 

“ I’m afraid not, Horth. It is Abd-ur-Eahim who has the 
cards up his sleeve this time. When I stood out there on 
the plain talking to him, I could see further than you can 
from here. He is very sweet and smiling, and he doesn’t 
want to make a show of force if he can do things pleasantly ; 
but behind these rocks here he has men enough stationed 
to account for us all five or six times over.” 

“ Then we are trapped ! ” said Dick, grimly, drawing his 
sword half out of its scabbard and feeling the edge. “ Well, 
better here under the open sky than between stone walls. 
We can give a good account of two or three times our 
number, posted as we are here, and they won’t get much 
change out of us.” 

“ Horth, you bloodthirsty villain ! Think of the poor 


THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION. 


297 


women and the Chief, and don’t talk of running amuck in 
that cast-iron way.” 

“ Don’t I think of the women ? Do you imagine I am 
made of stone, Stratford 1 My first shot is for Georgia, and 
after that — well, I suppose I shall run amuck.” 

‘‘Draw in a little, old man. That way madness lies. 
Keep cool, and listen to me for a moment. Since I have 
no one specially to look after, it may be that I am able to 
see things more calmly than you are. At any rate, it strikes 
me, leaving out of sight that ferocious idea of yours, that if 
we were cut to pieces we could do no possible good to any 
one — whereas if we accept Ahd-ur-Eahim’s overtures in a 
friendly spirit, and go with him, keeping possession of our 
weapons and holding together, we might spot a chance of 
escape, and at any rate we should he no worse off than we 
are now. If I were you, I should he thankful to keep clear 
of murder a little longer.” 

“Don’t talk to me !” said Dick, savagely. “You have 
not my reasons for anxiety.” 

“ Kor your reasons for prudence, either. Look at things 
quietly, Korth. I am certain this old fellow is not quite 
on the square, or he wouldn’t refuse to eat and drink with 
us ; hut I don’t think his intentions are necessarily mur- 
derous. If they were, he could easily have wiped us all 
out here and now, without taking the trouble to get us up 
to the fort. My own impression is that he means to hold 
us as hostages for Fath-ud-Din’s safety. If that is the 
case, we shall certainly he in no danger. It will only 
mean a slight delay, for when our Government find out 
from Hicks that we ought to reach the frontier soon after 
him they will send to inquire after us if we don’t turn up.” 

“But supposing Ahd-ur-Eahim’s intentions are mur- 
derous after all 1 ” 

“ Then we shall end up with a !.ig f^_^ht, I presume, and 


298 


PEACE WITH HONOUK. 


the result will be much the same in the fort as it would be 
here. Come, [N'orth, don’t let us give up hope too soon. 
K the worst comes to the worst, the ladies have revolvers 
and can use them — and I don’t know two women any- 
where who would be more certain to use them if it was 
necessary. Just you go to the tent and tell them quietly 
the state of affairs, while I inform Abd-ur-Eahim that we 
accept his offer of a night’s lodging. Then you and 
Kustendjian had better come and be presented. We will 
do everything in style, and with the most lively imitation 
possible of perfect confidence. The great thing is to avoid 
giving them the slightest excuse or opportunity of de- 
priving us of our arms.” 

Doggedly and unwillingly Dick took his way to the 
tent, while Stratford returned to Abd-ur-Eahim, who had 
remained stationary, with his immediate followers, during 
the colloquy. But he had profited by the interval to draw 
closer the cordon of armed men of whom Stratford had 
caught sight behind the rocks, and it was evident that, 
if such a fight as that contemplated by Dick had taken 
place, there would have been no possibility of escape for 
any member of the English party. 

“I must apologise for keeping you waiting so long, 
Abd-ur-Eahim,” said Stratford, as he approached. “ My 
friend is a great soldier, and very zealous in carrying 
out the business with which we are charged. He feared 
to lose even this half-day’s journey ; but I have succeeded 
in making him see that it is the act of a wise man to 
accept rest and refreshment whenever it is proffered by one 
worthy of respect.” 

“ Truly the wisdom of my lord is great ! ” responded 
Abd-ur-Eahim, a smile of gratification curling his white 
moustache, while an officer behind him muttered to a 
companion some words in Ethiopian which sounded to 


THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION.- 


299 


Stratford like, “ It is not so easy to hoodwink the soldier 
as the man of many words,” a remark which was dis- 
tinctly unjust to the listener. He made no sign of' having 
heard it, however, but went on speaking to Ahd-ur-Eahim 
in Arabic. 

There is only one thing I should like to say before we 
accept your hospitality, Abd-ur-Eahim. It is our habit 
to guard with great jealousy the women of our party. I 
believe your own custom in Ethiopia is much the same, 
and you will not, therefore, take it amiss if we surround 
them closely while on our march with youl” 

“ Surely not,” responded Abd - ur - Eahim, somewhat 
puzzled. “The customs of my lord’s land are even as 
our own, and his care for the household of his master 
gives the lie to the shameless tales that have been told 
me as to the habits of his nation. I have even heard it 
said that in Khemistan the women of the English go about 
unveiled ! ” 

Stratford was saved from the necessity of either con- 
firming or denying this tremendous accusation by the 
approach of Dick and Kustendjian, whom he presented 
formally by name to Abd-ur-Eahim, mentioning the rank 
held by each in the Mission. The old man looked at them 
in some surprise. 

“Are these all the English that are with my lordl” 
he asked. “ I heard that he had three white men under 
him.” 

“ There is one other,” said Stratford, “ a youth ; hut we 
have seen nothing of him since the storm broke upon us, 
and we fear that he has missed his way and been lost.” 

“Let not my lord be troubled about the young man,” 
said Abd-ur-Eahim. “ The storm did not last long enough 
for him to have come to any harm. Surely he has but 
taken shelter in some cave or hollow of the rocks, and my 


300 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


young men shall go in search of him, and bring him again 
to my lord.” 

Having acknowledged this offer in suitable terms, Strat- 
ford and the rest returned to superintend the arrangement 
of their party under the new conditions. The tent was 
taken down and packed on its camel again, the mules were 
harnessed afresh to the litter which carried Sir Dugald ; 
the ladies, mere masses of white linen, were helped to 
their saddles ; the diminished cavalcade of baggage-animals 
was ranged in order, and the column was ready to start. 
Stratford considered it only polite and expedient that he 
should ride beside Abd-ur-Eahim, much to the annoyance 
of Dick, who brought up again the memory of the murdered 
Macnaghten, and urged sotto voce that if any one’s life was 
to be risked, Kustendjian’s was the one that could be best 
spared. Stratford laughed at the idea, and retained his 
place, and the other two rode on either side of the litter, 
with the ladies following close behind them, while Ismail 
Bakhsh and his men formed a modest bodyguard. The 
household servants and the few muleteers and camel-men 
who had not been scattered by the stampede followed with 
the baggage-animals, and before and behind and all around, 
when the column had advanced into the open plain, came 
Abd-ur-Eahim’s wild soldiery. A few stray mules and 
camels were picked up by the way and added to the 
cavalcade, and presently the procession wound round a 
spur of the cliffs, and began to ascend the winding road 
which led up to the hill-fortress of Bir-ul-Malik, the strong- 
hold of Fath-ud-Din. 

The town itself was small in extent, and it was evident 
that the garrison formed the larger proportion of its inhabit- 
ants, for the rock-hewn streets were almost deserted when 
Abd-ur-Eahim passed through the gate with his guests. 
The town - walls surrounded a considerable area on the 


THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION. 


301 


summit of the cliff, and this in its turn sloped upwards at 
its further extremity, on which was erected the citadel, 
which thus commanded the town on one side and a sheer 
declivity on the other. Towards this fortification the pro- 
cession made its way, Dick glancing grimly at the tortuous 
streets and massive walls of the town as he rode, and 
muttering to himself that he and his party were in a trap 
which would take a good deal of getting out of. Passing in 
at the gate of the citadel, they found themselves in a large 
courtyard, above which rose a pile of buildings, constructed 
on and in the sloping face of the rock, the roofs of those 
lower down forming terraces by which the higher ones 
could he approached. The lower range of dwellings ap- 
peared to form the quarters of the garrison and servants, 
and those next above them the abodes of the officers, while 
the highest pile of buildings was evidently intended as the 
residence of the governor of the city. It was in this build- 
ing, Ahd-ur-Eahim intimated, that he had caused a lodging 
to be prepared for the illustrious English party ; and Strat- 
ford, while appreciating the honour done him, felt that he 
could readily have dispensed w'ith it, since escape would be 
out of the question save by passing all the lower dwellings 
and the inner and outer circuit of defences, the only 
alternative being the possibility of finding some means of 
descending the precipitous cliff on the other side. 

It was necessary to dismount in the courtyard, and to 
ascend to the Governor’s palace by a winding path cut in 
the rock and varied by several flights of steps. There was 
considerable difficulty in conveying Sir Dugald’s litter up 
this path, and what remained of the luggage had also to be 
carried up piece by piece, at a large expenditure of time and 
trouble. When the palace was once reached, however, 
there was no fault to find with the rooms allotted to the 
Mission. It was evident that they had remained unin- 


302 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


habited for some time, and they were rather dirty, rather 
dilapidated, and particularly bare of furniture ; but they 
were large and airy, and, as Stratford and Dick noticed 
with great satisfaction, the apartments appropriated to the 
ladies, which had formed part of the original harem, could 
only be approached by a passage from their own portion of 
the building. Behind, they looked out on a terrace formed 
by the top of the ramparts, beneath which the cliff fell steep 
and unbroken to the desert below. It was an alarming 
experience to come suddenly to the brink of this declivity, 
from which the unwary were protected merely by a crum- 
bling parapet, and Eahah only consented to contemplate it 
when standing at least six yards from the edge, and holding 
firmly to her mistress’s clothes. 

Eeturning from the terrace into the harem, Georgia began 
to examine the waifs and strays of luggage which had been 
cast up with her on this hill-top. Sir Dugald had been 
conveyed into one of the inner rooms, and Lady Haigh, 
with the assistance of Chanda Lai, was engaged in making 
him comfortable. In the large hall, into which the other 
rooms opened, lay a confused heap of boxes and cases, 
just as they had been left by the porters who had carried 
them in. 

“ Let us see what we have, Eahah,” said Georgia to her 
handmaid. “You had my dressing-case and my small 
medicine-chest on the mule with you, so they are safe, 
at any rate, and your own clothes too. That box there has 
books in it, I know, and here are our folding-chairs. I 
don’t see any of my clothes — any of my own things at all, 
in fact. I shall have to borrow some from Lady Haigh, for 
I see that two of her tin boxes are there. Those cases are 
Sir Dugald’s, of course ; and now there are only these two 
great boxes left, marked with my name. What can they 
have in them 1 Nothing very useful, I’m afraid — no 


THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION. 


303 


dresses, at any rate. Just borrow a hammer and chisel 
from Chanda Lai, Kahah. He was opening a packing-case 
a minute ago.” 

Eeturning quickly with the desired implements, Eahah 
forced open part of the lid of one of the boxes. 

‘‘Medical stores !” said Georgia, bringing out a packet of 
cotton -wool, and a tin case containing a roll of prepared 
india-rubber. “ I might be going to start a dispensary up 
here. Well, we are satisfactorily provided with medicines 
and surgical appliances, at any rate. Now the other box, 
Eahah. I only wish there was the slightest possibility of 
finding some of my clothes in it.” 

But no. Eahah drew back with a scream when she 
plunged her hand into the mass of crumpled paper which 
guarded the contents of the box ; and Georgia, guessing the 
state of affairs, brought out a huge, carefully - stoppered 
bottle, containing a gruesome-looking object swimming in 
a muddy yellow fluid. 

“ The collection ! ” she said, disdainfully. “ And of 
course that particularly detestable snake turns up first of all ! 
Well, Eahah, we are in a nice plight, with no clothes or 
fancy-work or sketching materials, but with a good many of 
those creatures to amuse us instead.” 

Eahah^s countenance expressed unutterable disgust, and 
her mistress was not proof against a modified feeling of the 
Same character, for it is the reverse of agreeable, even for a 
highly qualified lady doctor, to find oneself reduced to a 
single dress, and that a riding-habit. But while this small 
although sufiBciently unpleasant matter was occupying the 
minds of Georgia and her maid, Stratford and Dick were 
experiencing a very bad quarter of an hour in their part of 
the building. When their host left them they had occupied 
themselves in sorting the few possessions that remained to 
them ; but while they were in the midst of this somewhat 


304 


PEACE WITH HONOUK. 


melancholy process, Abd-ur-Rahim returned, accompanied 
by two or three of his ofiBicers. 

“ Is my lord graciously pleased to be contented with the 
accommodation afforded by my poor house ” asked the old 
man. 

“ I am sure we could ask nothing better,” returned Strat- 
ford, pleasantly. 

“ That is well, seeing that it will now be my lord’s abode 
during certain days,” said Abd-ur-Rahim. 

“ How is that ? ” asked Stratford. “ You offered us merely 
a night’s lodging, and we accepted it.” 

“ True ; but a man of my lord’s wisdom will not need to 
be reminded that it is only fools who allow the gifts of 
destiny to slip through their fingers. My lord and his 
companions have been brought into my hand, and here 
they will remain so long as our lord Fath-ud-Din is kept in 
prison at Kubbet-ul-Haj.” 

“Thank you. There’s nothing like knowing what one 
has to expect. How many years do you intend to entertain 
us here 'i ” 

“ That depends upon another matter. The liberation of 
Fath-ud-Din hangs upon the treaty that my lord holds, 
for if that is destroyed, our lord the King is free to do 
as he will, and the treaty, on account of the means by 
which it was gained, he finds disgraceful and irksome to 
him.” 

“ Show me the King’s mandate demanding the surrender 
of the treaty,” said Stratford, quickly. 

Abd-ur-Rahim shook his head. 

“ My lord knows that there are certain services that a 
man may render to his sovereign for which no orders can 
be given beforehand, although they may be richly rewarded 
when performed,” he said. “ Of such a kind is this matter 
of the treaty.” 


THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION. 


305 


** Don’t you wish you may get it 1 ” asked Stratford, aware 
that Dick’s fingers were gripping his revolver. 

“My lord must know that we shall get it. We have 
hut to compass the death of my lord and his companions, 
and the treaty must he found ; hut we would fain not shed 
blood. Let my lord tell his servant where the treaty is 
hidden.” 

“ I absolutely decline to say,” returned Stratford. 

“Then we must search my lord’s baggage.” 

“ You can search where you like, but you cannot make 
me tell you where the treaty is. I presume you do not 
intend to search the baggage of the ladies'}” 

“ Kay, my lord ! What hiding-place is so safe or so 
probable as among a woman’s belongings *} But there need 
be no search if my lord will only tell what he knows. Did 
he bring the treaty into the fortress with him 1 ” 

“I refuse to say. One word, Abd-ur-Kahim. There 
can he no idea of searching the ladies’ things. You may 
ask what questions you like, but the ladies must have 
notice beforehand, and it must be in the presence of one of 
us, or — well, whoever goes into the harem, you will not be 
alive to do it.” 

“ My lord need have no fear. He may go now and bid 
the women prepare for my coming. I will but question 
them, and believe what they say, for the English always 
tell the truth. I would accept the word of my lord even 
now, if he could assure me that he had not the treaty with 
him when he entered the fortress.” 

There was some eagerness in the old man’s tone, as 
though he found his task distasteful, and would have wel- 
comed this chance of dispensing with the performance of it ; 
but Stratford shook his head. 

“ I can say nothing. Stand at the door, Korth, while I 
go in to warn the ladies. And keep cool. Cheek may 

u 


306 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


possibly bring us through this fix yet, as it did through the 
other.” 

With a frowning brow, Dick took up the position indi- 
cated, and Stratford entered the passage and knocked at 
the door. Georgia looked up from her doleful examination 
of her possessions as he came in. 

“We are trying to discover what we have saved from 
the wreck of our fortunes,” she said, lightly. “But what 
is the matter, Mr Stratford? Does your venerable old 
friend intend to murder us after all?” 

“ Not unless he is obliged,” returned Stratford ; “ but it 
may come to that yet. He means to get hold of the treaty. 
Bath-ud-Din seems to think that if he enables the King to 
destroy it, he will be restored to power. I don’t think the 
King is in the plot at present, but far be it from me to say 
that he wouldn’t come into it with a good grace if he got 
the chance.” 

“ And you want me to hide the treaty ? ” 

“Certainly not. By no manner of means. I merely 
came to tell you that Abd-ur-Eahim insists on ques- 
tioning you and Lady Haigh as to whether you know 
anything about it. He will come in here when he has 
finished ransacking our place, so put your hurkas on again, 
please.”, 

“ But, Mr Stratford, where is the treaty ? ” 

“ Here,” said Stratford, exhibiting the front of his coat, 
“ in a pocket which my bearer and I contrived for it You 
see, it goes between the cloth and the lining, and is sewn 
in. It is rolled up so tightly that it does not show at all 
under ordinary circumstances ; but if they search me, they 
are bound to find it immediately.” 

“ And what then ? ” 

“ T can’t give it up, of course, so that if they attempt to 
spai'cli us, we must show fight. , We must only hope they 


THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION. 


307 


won’t, for our opposing the idea would arouse suspicion at 
once.” 

“ If they have any sense whatever, it is the first thing 
they will do,” said Georgia, promptly. “ I^'o, Mr Stratford, 
I am not going to allow you and Dick to run such a risk, 
and perhaps bring destruction upon us all Give me the 
treaty, and I will hide it.” 

“ And transfer the risk to yourself ^ How, Miss Keel- 
ing, do you really think me capable of doing such a 
thing 1 ” 

“ There will be no risk whatever. I have an idea. Take 
off your coat, Mr Stratford — quick ! ” with a stamp of the 
foot — “ there is no time to lose. Give me those scissors, 
Eahah, and thread a needle with grey cotton. That’s it ; 
now sew up that slit as neatly as you can.” 

‘‘ What are you going to do ? ” inquired Stratford, stand- 
ing helplessly by in his shirt-sleeves, while Georgia was 
rolling the fateful parchment into the smallest possible 
compass, and Eahah stitched up with marvellous rapidity 
the yawning hole in his coat. 

“ Hever mind, for I won’t tell you. You are to know 
nothing. There is your coat, Mr Stratford. Keep Abd-ur- 
Eahim outside for two minutes, and then let him do his 
worst.” 

Half-reluctant and whoUy perplexed, Stratford allowed 
himself to be gently impelled in the direction of the door, 
and went out, to find Dick, still on guard, protesting 
vehemently that he would never allow himself to be 
searched, and that the first man that laid a finger on him 
with that purpose in view would have little opportunity 
for repenting his rashness afterwards. Perceiving at once 
that his friend guessed he had the treaty upon him, and 
was endeavouring to divert suspicion to himself, Stratford 
proceeded, not without a little malicious pleasure in the 


308 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


circumstance, to cut the ground from under Dick^s feet by 
remarking calmly — 

“ Keep cool, North ; we are prisoners, though we were 
seized by a mean trick, and we must submit to the treat- 
ment our jailers think fit to inflict upon us. Ahd-ur- 
Eahim ” — he turned with dignity to his too hospitable host 
— “we are your prisoners. As to the means by which you 
induced us to put ourselves in your power I say nothing. 
Still, I ask you as a gentleman, is this insult necessary ? ” 

“ By no means,” returned Abd-ur-Eahim, promptly. “ If 
my lord and his friends will give their word that they have 
not the treaty about them, they shall not be touched.” 

To the utter stupefaction of Dick, Stratford at once gave 
the required assurance, which was repeated by his friend 
and Kustendjian. Some demur was made as to accepting 
the word of the latter, on the ground that he was not an 
Englishman ; but on Stratford’s volunteering the assurance 
that he was speaking the truth, his statement also was 
considered satisfactory. 

In the meantime, Georgia and her maid were not idle in 
the inner room. The moment that the door had closed 
behind Stratford, Georgia flew to the box which contained 
the collection, and drew out the bottle enshrining the 
historic snake. The roll of prepared india-rubber from the 
case of medical stores was the next requisite, and, un- 
fastening it, she made Eahah cut off a piece a little longer 
than the treaty in its rolled-up form, and wide enough to 
wrap round it twice. When the roll had been made as 
tight and smooth as possible, she tied up the ends very 
securely. 

“ Now, Eahah, take off the bladder from the top of that 
bottle as carefully as you can. Don’t break it, whatever 
you do. Now get the cork out. Dig it out with the 
point of the scissors if it won’t come easily ; we mustn’t 


THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION. 


309 


use a cork-screw. Turn your head away if you don’t like 
the smell. There, — what a good thing that the spirit has 
sunk a little ! ” She dropped the roll containing the treaty 
into the great bottle, in the midst of the coils of the snake, 
replaced the cork, tied the bladder over it again, and, 
holding the bottle up, looked at it critically. The effect 
was perfect. The dull-brown of the india-rubber wrapping 
combined with the bolder tones of the serpent’s skin and 
the unpleasant yellow of the spirit so completely, that 
scarcely a trace of the intruder was perceptible even to 
her practised eye. 

“ So far, so good. Now on with our hurhas^ Eahah. 
That’s right, put the bottle back into the box. There is 
a smell of the spirit about. Knock over that bottle of 
camphor and break it. Oh, they are coming ! Kneel 
down, Eahah, and be nailing the cover on the box in a 
most tremendous hurry.” 

Eahah entered into her part with keen delight, jerked 
the camphor-bottle to the floor with her elbow, and jumped 
up with a most artistically guilty start when Dick and 
Stratford entered with the four Ethiopians, while Georgia 
dropped the hammer with a clatter on the stones. 

“ What is in that box which the women are nailing up 1 ” 
demanded Abd-ur-Eahim, sharply, while the faces of his 
followers betrayed much excitement, not unmixed with 
triumph. 

“ Do they really want to know ? ” asked Georgia, with 
something like pity in her tones, when the question was 
translated to her. “Well, I will show them if they are 
so anxious to see it.” 

Lifting the lid, she drew out with one hand the bottle 
containing the snake, and with the other one which en- 
closed a very evil-looking deformed frog, and held them 
out to the inquisitors, who recoiled precipitately. 


310 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ They are the devils which obeyed the English doctor 
who was carried off by Shaitan from his house at Kubbet- 
ul-Haj ! ” was the murmur which went round. 

“There are plenty more in the box,” said Georgia, cheer- 
fully. “ You can unpack them for yourselves if you would 
like to look at them ; only I would advise you for your 
own sakes to take care not to break the bottles.” 

“Is it true that if the bottles were opened the devils 
would get loose % ” asked one of the Ethiopians, in an awful 
whisper. 

“ It is quite true that if the bottles are opened what is 
in them will come out,” responded Georgia, setting down 
on the box the two she had been holding ; “ but you shall 
see for yourselves what will happen.” 

She lifted the bottle containing the frog, as though to 
hurl it in the direction of the visitors, but Abd-ur-Rahim 
interposed hastily in much agitation. 

“ Let my lord entreat the doctor lady to let the evil 
things remain where they are,” he said to Stratford. 
“ Surely he must know that I have but obeyed the 
commands I have received, and that I have done my best 
to save him and his company from all annoyance. More- 
over, though the doctor lady should destroy these men and 
myself by her magic, my soldiers outside would certainly 
set the palace on fire, and burn her and all my lord’s 
company, when they found out what had happened. Sufler 
her not, then, to work us evil, and we will but ask her a 
few questions and depart.” 

With a face of the utmost gravity, Stratford translated 
the entreaty, and the questions which followed it, to Georgia, 
who was much impressed by the opinion entertained by Abd- 
ur-Rahim as to her powers and her willingness to use them. 

“ Has the doctor lady the treaty concealed about her, or 
has her maid got it ? ” 


THE VALUE OF A REPUTATION. 


311 


** Certainly not.” 

“ Is it in any of those boxes t ” 

“Ho, it is not in any of them.” 

“ Is it hidden anywhere in the floor or the walls 1 *• 

“ Howhere in the floor or the walls.” 

“ Does the doctor lady know where it is ? ” 

“ I refuse to say.” 

“ Who can trust the words of a woman 1 ” asked one of 
the officers, rudely. “ The doctor lady has it hidden.” 

“ Tell them that I am St George Keeling’s daughter, Mr 
Stratford,” cried Georgia, angrily, guessing the drift of the 
remark from the tone, “ and ask them whether it is likely 
that I should tell a lie 1 ” 

Stratford translated the words, and the name produced 
an impression which showed that the fame of the Warden 
of the Marches had spread beyond his own border. 

“ In my youth,” said Abd-ur-Eahim, “ I have faced Sinjaj 
Kilin in peace and war, and I know well that no son or 
daughter of his house could be a liar.” 

Georgia’s wrath calmed down, and Eahah, feeling that 
she was responsible for maintaining the honour of the house 
of Keeling, suppressed the falsehood which rose to her lips 
when she was asked whether she knew where the treaty 
was, and imitated her mistress in declining to say. 

“ And now we need only question the great lady,” said 
Abd-ur-Eahim, when Eahah’s examination was over; and 
Georgia went in search of Lady Haigh, and brought her 
into the hall, worried and protesting, and determined that 
no one should approach Sir Dugald’s sick-room. She was 
much easier to deal with than the rest. 

“ I haven’t an idea where the treaty is, and if I had, 
I wouldn’t tell you,” was her answer to Abd-ur-Eahim’s 
question. “ Why do you come bothering me about treaties t 
Ask Mr Stratford ; he is the proper person.” 


312 


PEACE WITH HONOUE. 


“ But is it not hidden anywhere in the great lady’s 
apartments 1 ” 

“ I should think not, indeed ! I have something else to 
do besides hiding treaties. Georgie, I want you to come 
and see Sir Dugald at once. I am sure he is not so well.” 

‘‘ The man of many words must have dropped the treaty 
into the sand as he came hither,” said one of the Ethiopians in 
a low voice to his chief, as Georgia retired with Lady Haigh. 

“ ISTay, that he could not have done without my seeing 
him,” objected Abd-ur-Eahim. 

“ He may have hidden it among the rocks where we first 
came upon these English,” suggested another. 

“ It is well thought of ; I wiU have the place searched,” 
said Abd-ur-Eahim. “ But mark me — my opinion is that 
none of those here know where it is. It has been given to 
the youth who is missing, and he is to escape with it or to 
hide it. Therefore let the youth be pursued and taken. 
The rest are trying to lead us to think that they have it con- 
cealed among them here, that so he may get away in safety.” 

This explanation of their defeat appeared to satisfy the 
Ethiopians, and they returned to the outer rooms, accompanied 
by Dick and Stratford, who were almost as much mystified 
as they were. 


CHAPTEE XX. 

FOR THE HONOUR OP ENGLAND’S SAKE. 

Half an hour later, Georgia stepped out of the great 
latticed window on the terrace, and kneeling beside the 
parapet, rested her arms on it, and looked away over the 


FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND’S SAKE. 313 


desert. There in the distance rose the walls and towers 
of Bir-ul-Malikat, Fath-nd- Din’s second fortress, which 
crowned the top of a conical hill some four miles from 
Bir-ul-Malik. Within those walls old Khadija, the 
sorceress, bore rule, and held in her grasp the knowledge 
which alone could save Sir Dugald’s life. Lady Haigh’s 
intuition had been a true one, although there was no out- 
ward change in her husband’s condition. Whether the 
sand-storm and the hurried journey ings of the day had 
brought about a loss of vitality, or whether they had 
merely rendered perceptible a failure which had hitherto 
been too gradual to be noticed, it was undeniable that the 
pulse was less regular, and the action of the heart more 
feeble than before. The insidious poison administered 
by Fath-ud-Din was sapping Sir Dugald’s life away, and, 
unless the mysterious antidote could be obtained, his pro- 
tracted unconsciousness would before long pass into death. 

“ I must see this Khadija,” said Georgia to herself, as her 
eyes wandered over the desert, “and find out whether any- 
thing will induce her to sell her secret. I might introduce 
myself to her as a sister in the craft — Abd-ur-Eahim and 
his men would bear me out — and suggest an interchange of 
ideas. There must be quite a number of things I could tell 
her, and I could set her up with a few medicines. The 
effects would be wonderful to her. But then, she might not 
care for remedies, and I am certainly not going to put more 
poisons into her hands. I fancy that killing is more in her 
line than curing. What was it that Eahah told me she 
said when a girl asked her for a love-philtre 1 ‘I shall 
make no love-philtre but one, and that will be for my Eose 
of the World to give her bridegroom on the marriage-night.' 
I’m afraid she would not care about the opportunity of 
doing kindnesses. She must be fond of the girl Zeynab 
— perhaps it might be possible to work upon her feelings 


314 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


through her. At any rate, I must see her ; hut how am I to 
manage it 1 Dick would he very angry if I went without 
telling him, and yet I am sure he would prevent my going 
if he knew of it. But I will go, even if I have to break with 
Dick about it. To leave Sir Dugald to die, and make Lady 
Haigh a widow, when I knew where the remedy was to be 
found, just for fear of vexing Dick, would be shameful. 
1 shall be obliged to oppose him some day, and it is a good 
thing to do it for the first time in such an absolutely right- 
eous cause. There can be no doubt whatever as to my 
being in the right this time, but I^m sure he wonT see it. 
I do wish people would be a little more reasonable ! ” 

She was tapping her stethoscope impatiently against the 
stones as she spoke, and it slipped suddenly from her fingers 
and rolled over the edge of the parapet. Looking after it, 
she saw that, instead of dropping or rolling down into the 
plain, as she had expected, it had lodged on a projection 
in the cliff, not more than twenty feet below the parapet, 
where a few tufts of withered-looking grass had found hold- 
ing-ground. Stni, it was quite beyond her power to reach it. 

“ How careless of me ! ” she said, with deep vexation. 
“ My dear old hospital stethoscope ! I wonder whether it 
could be reached from here 1 I think a man with a rope 
might be able to get it. How much astonished Dick would 
be if I asked him to go down for it ! I wonder whether he 
would go 1 He would send one of the servants, I should 
think. It would be quite easy to let him down and draw 
him up again. What a convenient little shelf that is ! It 
would be rather a good place to put the treaty in, for if 
they catch Mr Anstruther and find he has not got it, they 
may come back and make another search. I wonder 
bother it would be safe 1 I don’t think the cover would 
show among that grass.” 

Leaning over the parapet, she scanned the face of the 


FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND’S SAKE. 315 


cliff, and raised herself to her former position with some 
disappointment. 

“ It would he very difficult to drop it just in the right 
place,” she went on meditatively; “and, if there was a 
storm, the rain would he sure to wash it away. Of course, 
it might lodge somewhere lower down — or it might not ; 
and, if it did, we might not he able to get at it. Why, 
it looks as though there might he a path right up the cliff 
to the shelf ! It is quite a series of steps and ledges, arid 
projecting stones, and tufts of grass. It would need a very 
cool head to climh it, and a sure foot too, hut I believe it 
could he done. It might he very dangerous, for any one 
could get in and attack us without our knowing. They 
could hide among those ruined huts at the foot of the cliff, 
and choose a time when none of us were out here. Of 
course, they couldn’t very well get up as far as this from the 
shelf, for the cliff overhangs just at the top, and there are no 
projections ; hut they might have a rope-ladder with a hook 
at the top to throw up and catch in something, or some 
other way of doing it. It doesn’t feel a hit safe. I know I 
shall dream that there are men getting up here aU night ; 
hut I won’t he silly and frighten the rest. It’s all nonsense! 
No one could climh this last piece of the cliff.” 

Notwithstanding the certainty of this assurance, the 
memory of that giddy path, probably made in the rainy 
season by the wild goats, haunted Georgia, and when bed- 
time came she stole out again to make sure that there was 
no one climbing up it. In the great hare room behind her, 
Eahah, sitting cross-legged on the floor, was contemplating 
with much satisfaction the arrangements she had devised 
for the night. It so happened that among the luggage that 
had gone astray was Georgia’s mattress and piUow. This 
loss Eahah had repaired by lying in wait for Dick and 
informing him of it, receiving, as she had anticipated, an 


316 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


order to carry off his bedding for Miss Keeling’s benefit. 
She obeyed promptly, regardless of the wrath of his bearer, 
who cursed her audibly whenever he saw her, for the duty 
of spoiling the Egyptians was one very congenial to Eahah’s 
mind. In her view, it was part of a lady’s-maid’s business 
to exploit every other human being with an eye to her 
mistress’s pleasure or welfare, and if the Major Sahib was 
w illin g to sleep on the floor in order that the doctor lady 
should be in comfort, it was not for her to baulk him. 
Georgia, of course, knew nothing, and was to know nothing 
of this little arrangement ; and Eahah sat and yawned, and 
blinked sleepily at the lamp, and wished that her mistress 
would come to bed quickly and not stay looking down that 
horrible cliff. 

But Georgia, leaning over the parapet and staring down 
into the darkness, saw more than the indeterminate outlines 
of rocks and sun-dried bushes. Her heart was in her mouth 
as she peered down the cliff, for she felt certain that she 
had seen something moving below, and that it, whatever it 
might be, was climbing the hazardous path she had noticed 
by daylight. Too much fascinated and horror-stricken to 
move, she remained leaning over the edge until Lady Haigh 
stepped out of the carved doorway behind her and startled 
her by speaking suddenly. 

“ Oughtn’t you to be coming to bed, Georgie ? It is very 
late, and you have had an anxious day. What are you 
looking at down there?” 

“ Oh, Lady Haigh, there is some one — a man or several 
men — climbing up the cliff ! ” was the gasping answer, as 
Georgia turned round with a blanched face. 

Lady Haigh pushed her gently aside and looked over as 
she had done. 

“There is something there, certainly,” she whispered; 
“but it is almost sure to be only a goat.” 


FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND’S SAKE. 317 


Somewhat reassured, Georgia returned to her post of 
vantage, and side by side they watched together the upward 
progress of the dark body, until the sound of labouring 
breath reached them, showing that the climb must be a 
severe one. 

^^It is a man,” said Lady Haigh. Can they get quite 
to the topi” 

“Ko, about twenty feet down the cliff begins to slope 
outwards.” 

“ Then we won’t alarm the gentlemen just yet. It may 
be only one of our own servants trying to discover us, and 
we don’t want him to fall into Abd-ur-Eahim’s hands. We 
shall soon see whether this man’s intentions are hostile.” 

“ He has reached the ledge now,” gasped Georgia. “ He 
is resting.” 

The mysterious visitor seemed inclined to make no further 
effort for the present, for he remained motionless during 
several anxious moments; but at last a very low, clear 
whistling became audible, to which Lady Haigh and Georgia 
listened in astonishment and trepidation. 

“ It must be a signal,” whispered Georgia. “ Ho,” she 
cried, suddenly, “ I know that tune ! It is the ‘ Battle of 
the Boyne,’ and a minute ago it was ^ Derry WaUs.’ Lady 
Haigh, it’s Mr Anstruther ! ” 

“ Is it you, Mr Anstruther 1 ” asked Lady Haigh, in a low 
voice. The answer came back promptly. 

“ It is myself, very much at your service, Lady Haigh, if I 
could only get near enough to serve you. Are you all right V* 

“ Quite safe at present,” returned Georgia ; “ but we have 
gone through some thrilling experiences during the day. 
How did you find us outl” 

Lost my way in the sand-storm, and wandered round the 
wrong side of the hill. I took shelter among those ruins 
down below, and my horse is there still. When I ventured 


318 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


out to scout a little, I saw the Mission taking a prominent 
part — and I guessed an unwilling one — in a procession up 
the hill and into the fortress, so I returned to my hiding- 
place and planned doughty deeds. But could you get me 
up this last piece of cliff by any means'? — for it’s rather 
exhausting to carry on a long conversation in a stage- 
whisper, craning one’s neck upwards all the while. Besides, 
I have some of your property about me, Miss Keeling, which 
I should he glad to restore to you. By the bye, did you lose 
anything about five o’clock this afternoon, when you stood 
looking over the edge for such a long time *? It was that 
which enabled me to locate you so smartly.” 

“Yes, I dropped my pet stethoscope, and I shall be ex- 
tremely grateful if you can find it. It fell on the ledge 
where you are sitting. But I will just go and send Eahah 
to see whether it is safe to call the rest to pull you up.” 

She returned in a few minutes with her arms fuU of pieces 
of rope. 

“We can do nothing at present Eahah reconnoitred 
through the key-hole or in some such way, and she says that 
the gentlemen have got a ‘ party.’ Mr Stratford is playing 
chess with Abd-ur-Eahim, and the other two are talking to 
his officers. She is to bring us word at once when the party 
breaks up, and in the meantime I have taken all the ropes 
from the boxes, and Lady Haigh and I can fasten them 
together. The rope will be fearfully knotty, but perhaps 
til at will make it safer.” 

“It will be aU the better,” said Fitz, decisively, “for we 
need not wait for the other fellows to come and pull me up. 
If you and Lady Haigh wiU fasten the rope round something 
firm, and pull at it both together with all your strength to 
test the knots, you can send me the end, and I will come up 
hand over hand if you wiU help to hoist me over the 
parapet” 


FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND’S SAKE. 319 


The two ladies agreed to this proposition with fear and 
trembling, and many hopes that Dick and Stratford would 
arrive before the construction of the rope was completed. 
But they did not come, and the knots were tied and tested, 
and the rope fastened with extraordinary care round the 
r.tone pillar which formed the central support of the carved 
lattice- work of the window. With many cautions, the other 
end was passed down to Fitz, and he came up it in a way 
which extorted mingled admiration and terror from the 
watchers. Helping hands assisted him over the parapet, 
and at last he stood safe and sound upon the terrace. 

“Well,” he said, cheerfully, “I shall have to tell the 
gymnasium instructor at Whitcliffe Grammar School how 
useful his teaching has been when I get home. Without it 
I might have remained on that ledge all night, and seren- 
aded you with Orange ditties at a hopeless distance, Miss 
Keeling. But I mustn’t forget to restore you your lost pro- 
perty. There is your stethoscope, and here is your cat.” 

Untying the handkerchief he presented to her, and which 
had been secured in some complicated way to the button- 
holes of his coat, Georgia released Colleen Bawn, very much 
rumpled and highly indignant, from her imprisonment, and 
deposited her on the ground, soothing her ruffled feelings 
and fur by a little friendly stroking. 

“ I am ashamed to think you should have taken so much 
trouble about her, Mr Anstruther. Thank you very, very 
much, and for finding the stethoscope too. What do you 
think of doing now ? ” 

“ I should rather like some grub, if there is any going. 
I haven’t had anything since breakfast, for I hadn’t the 
forethought to take meat lozenges with me, as Stratford 
did. Biscuits, or something of that sort that is , at hand, 
and won’t need preparing, for I don’t intend to stay here^ 
and I don’t want to be caught.” 


320 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


A frugal meal of biscuits, potted meat, and water, in 
which Colleen Bawn claimed a share^ was quickly set be- 
fore Fitz, and when his hunger was partially satisfied he 
looked up. 

“Lady Haigh, I want you to exert your authority. 
When I found that you were all in here, and I was out- 
eide, I had some thoughts of making for the frontier at 
once and fetching help; but then I hit on another plan. 
I want Miss Keeling to come too. My horse has been 
resting ever since the storm, and is perfectly fresh, and she 
could ride him splendidly if we changed the saddle. I 
could walk all right, and we should be a good way towards 
Fort Eahmat-Ullah in the morning.” 

Lady Haigh sat down upon the parapet and burst into 
stifled but irrepressible laughter, which failed, however, to 
disconcert Fitz. 

“My dear boy,” she gasped, while he looked at her 
resolutely and without a smile, “it is quite untrue to say 
that the age of chivalry — of the wildest knight-errantry — 
is gone. Can you really tliink it possible that we should 
allow Miss Keeling to go wandering off like Una, with you 
as a protector instead of the lion 'i Why, it is fully three 
days’ journey to the frontier from here, and there are 
enemies all the way.” 

“ I would take care of her, really. I would die before 
any harm should happen to her.” 

“ I haven’t a doubt of that, but you forget that when you 
were once dead, the situation would be rather serious for 
Miss Keeling. And how do you imagine that Major Korth 
would receive your proposal ^ ” and Lady Haigh collapsed 
again helplessly. 

“But, Lady Haigh,” said Georgia, quickly, afraid that 
Fitz’s feelings might be hurt, “ Mr Anstruther might take 
the treaty with him, if he is going to ride to Fort Eahmat- 


rOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND’S S AKE. 


321 


Ullah. Mr Stratford told us this morning that Ahd-ur- 
Eahim and the rest think he is already on the way there 
with it, and it would be splendid to get it into a place of 
safety.” 

“ Come, that is worth thinking about ! ” said Lady Haigh. 
But, after a moment's consideration, she shook her head 
decidedly. “ No, Georgie, it won't do. Sir Dugald would 
never have trusted any one so young with the treaty, and I 
am sure Mr Stratford won't.” 

“ Oh, really now. Lady Haigh,” said Eitz, much wounded, 
“ I have my compass, and I can find my way about as well 
as most people. There's my horse as fresh as he can be, 
and I would simply ride night and day until I got to the 
Fort” 

“Or until your horse dropped dead in the desert, and 
left you stranded with the treaty,” said Lady Haigh. “ No, 
Mr Anstruther, you are not at aU the man for such an 
enterprise. It needs prudence and caution even more than 
reckless riding and dare-devil bravery. Georgie,” she 
turned to her impatiently, “don’t you see what I mean? 
There is only one person here to whom the treaty could be 
intrusted with any hope of saving it and us, and that is 
Major North.” 

“ Dick ! ” gasped Georgia, catching at the lattice to steady 
herself. “ Oh no. Lady Haigh, you can't mean that ! 
Why should Dick go?” 

“ Because he is the only man who could possibly carry 
the thing through ; and he is a soldier, and it is his duty,” 
responded Lady Haigh, tersely. 

“Don't be afraid. Miss Keeling,” said Fitz, with an 
aggressive indifference to Lady Haigh's line of argument. 
“ North is not going to take my job away from me, and ride 
off upon my gee — ^not if I know it ! ” 

“Here are Mr Stratford and Major North,” said Lady 


322 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Haigh, as, conducted by Rahah, they emerged from the 
lattice, and explained that Abd-ur-Rahim and his subordin- 
ates had only just departed, finding their prisoners oppressed 
with unconquerable fatigue. The moment they were left 
alone, Rahah had delivered her message, and they waited 
only to place Kustendjian on guard in case of the return of 
Abd-ur-Rahim, and followed her guidance. Georgia watched 
them helplessly as they congratulated Fitz on his safety, 
and examined the rope, and peered down into the gulf 
below. She remained leaning against the pillar, unable to 
quit its friendly support, even when the murmur of low 
voices told her that Lady Haigh was repeating her former 
suggestion. 

“I call it beastly unfair, the way I am done out of 
everything ! ” she heard Fitz grumble at last. “ When you 
had that jolly row in the Mission courtyard round the flag- 
staff, I had to stay in and guard the house, and that other 
time when I wanted to go to the Palace you wouldn’t let 
me. And noW you mean to keep me here, while North 
uses my horse and my way out of this place, though I’m 
the only one of you that, didn’t manage to get shut up 
here.” 

“ And you managed that by desertion and disobedience 
to orders,” said Stratford, impatiently, for he had succeeded 
by this time in extracting from Ismail Bakhsh the particulars 
of Fitz’s mysterious disappearance. “ Try not to be more 
of a fool than you can help, young Anstruther. We can’t 
risk the honour of the country and the fate of the Mission 
on the hope that you may chance to act sensibly for once.” 

“ I say that it is my right to go, Mr Stratford,” returned 
Fitz, doggedly; but Dick broke through the group, and came 
to Georgia. 

« ShaUIgo, Georgie?” 

“ Oh, Dick, must I decide for you ? ” 


FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND’S SAKE. 323 

“ You have a right to do it, I think. At any rate, right 
or no right, I am not going if you ask me not to. I put 
myself in your' hands, Georgie, and the treaty and every- 
thing else may slide if you tell me to stay here. What 
good would it all be to me if — if anything happened to you 
while I was gone ? ” 

He spoke hoarsely, his words tumbling over one another, 
and Georgia felt that the hands which clasped hers were hot 
and shaking. She looked at him in amazement which was 
almost terror. W^as it possible that in some ways she was 
stronger than he was — that he was confessedly looking to 
her for the strength which should enable him to tear himself 
away from her 1 

“ It is an awfully risky thing, Miss Keeling,” said Strat- 
ford, interposing with an honest determination to let Georgia 
know the worst before she made her decision. “ He takes 
his life in his hand if he goes. I am sure no one could 
wonder at your keeping him back. In fact, under the 
circumstances, I should think it quite probable. that no one 
would expect him to leave you here and ride olf to Kahmat- 
Ullah to save the treaty.” 

** If I were not here,” said Georgia, “ would you think it 
.right for him to go 1 ” 

‘‘Well, things would be different then, you see — and 

really this is such an important business ** 

“Wliyr’ 

“We are tolerably safe, I suppose, in any case ; but to 
get back without the treaty would be rather a bad blow for 
our prestige, of course. All the old troubles would begin 
again, and England would become a laughing-stock ” 

“ I see,” said Georgia. “ Dick, you must go.” 

“All right,” said Dick, gruffly, restored to composure by 
the decision with which she spoke ; “ but why ” 

“For England’s sake — for honour’s sake,” she replied. 


324 


PEACE WITH HONOUB, 


Dick looked at her in some alarm. Had the greatness of 
the crisis, which for the moment had unmanned himself, 
turned her brain, or could she really find comfort in fine 
language at such a time ? He did not know the sustaining 
power which is contained for a woman in a phrase of the 
kind. It gives her something to lean upon, as she repeats it 
to herself with a determination to be worthy of it. 

You are sure you don’t mind, Georgie 1 ” he asked in 
his blundering way. 

“Oh no ; I am not likely to mind, am I ? ” she said, 
with a sudden fierceness in her voice. “ Do you want to 
break my heart, Dick 1 ” 

A sob broke from her lips, but she choked it down as he 
put his arm round her, and he only felt her hands fondling 
his rough coat-sleeve. “If you do that, I canH go,” he 
muttered. 

“ Then I won’t,” said Georgia, with an effort ; but she 
held his arm tightly as he returned to the rest 

“We may as well get things settled,” he said. “Where 
is this horse of yours, Anstruther ? ” 

Ditz explained the position of the ruined hut in which he 
had left his horse tied up, while Stratford tested the rope. 

“ I say,” he said, “ we must add some more to this. It 
won’t take you half-way down, and you will want something 
to hold on to while you are feeling for a foothold. You 
had better have the end fastened round you, for though the 
moon isn’t bad, you might easily slip, since you have not 
seen the cliff by daylight. I will hunt up Ismail Bakhsh, 
as he has charge of the baggage-ropes, and it might be a 
good thing if he was to lend you a turban and cloak. They 
would pass muster at a distance, but it is hopeless to think 
of disguising you satisfactorily if you meet any one at close 
quarters, for there are no hillmen about here. You will 
want food and water, too.” 


FOE THE HONOUK OF ENGLAND’S SAKE. 


325 


He hurried away, returning with Ismail Bakhsh just as 
Georgia was fishing the treaty out of its place of conceal- 
ment It was none the worse for its immersion, and she 
wrapped it in another cover and sewed it into Dick’s 
coat. 

“ It was an excellent idea, that hiding-place,” said Strat- 
ford, as she and Dick rejoined the rest. “I couldn’t 
imagine what in the world you had done with the thing, 
unless you had tied a string to it and hung it out of the 
window. Look here, North, you had better not take your 
sword. It will only make a clatter, and won’t do you much 
good. Take the dagger the mutineers bequeathed to you 
instead ; it is nearly long enough for a sword.” 

“Take care of this for me then, Georgie,” said Dick, 
unbuckling the sword he had just fastened on, and Georgia 
received the charge with gratitude, for she knew that Dick’s 
sword was his most cherished possession. The work of 
lengthening the rope was going on rapidly, the provisions 
for the three days’ ride, a little bread and dried fruit, a little 
corn for the horse, and a scanty supply of water, were fast- 
ened round Dick’s waist for the descent of the cliff, and the 
turban and the mantle were arranged by Ismail Bakhsh. 
All was ready. Dick shook hands with the rest, and 
turned to Georgia as she stood white and tearless beside 
the parapet. 

“Georgie, if you tell me not to go, I’U stay now,” he 
whispered, as he saw her face. • 

“No, Dick, go — for honour’s sake” — and she repeated 
mechanically the words which had been burning themselves 
into her brain during the last half-hour — 

“ ‘ I could not love thee, dear, so much, 

Loved I not honour more.’ 

Go, dear,” she said again, and took his face between her 
hands and kissed him on the forehead. 


326 


PEACE WITH HONOUll. 


“It’s women like you that make men heroes in spite 
of themselves,” broke out Dick. “Oh, Georgie, I was a 
brute to you this morning — about that cat of yours. Say 
you forgive me.” 

“ Dick ! ” she almost laughed. “ As though I could re- 
member such a thing as that now ! Good-bye, my dearest, 
and God go with you.” 

“ God keep you, my darling ! ” He held her in his arms 
for a moment longer, then released her with a last kiss. 
“ Take care of her,” he said to the rest, as he stepped up 
on the parapet, and let himself down by the rope. They 
lowered him carefully to the ledge, and from thence, with 
the rope still round his waist, he made his way down the 
precarious path to the foot of the cliff. Presently the strain 
on the rope ceased. Those above drew it up, and listening 
intently, fancied they could hear the sound of a horse’s 
hoofs as it was led cautiously over the fallen rocks into the 
open plain, but the shadows were too confusing to allow 
them to distinguish anything by the sense of sight. They 
listened anxiously for any alarm from the walls which might 
indicate that some sentry had been more successful, but 
none came, and they returned slowly to their several quar- 
ters, Fitz taking possession of the room which had been 
assigned to Dick. As for Georgia, she kissed the sword- 
hilt on which her lover’s fingers had so often rested, and 
allowed her tears to have free course, now that he was no 
longer at hand for his heart to be troubled by them. 

Very early the next morning, before any of Abd-ur-Kahim’s 
dependants were about, Stratford, Fitz, and Ismail Bakhsh 
might have been seen hard at work by the light of a smoky 
lamp. They were taking the long rope to pieces, or, in 
other words, restoring its component parts to their original 
form as box cords, and returning them to the places where 
they might reasonably be expected to be found under 


FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND’S SAKE. 327 

ordinary circumstances. When Eahah had been intrusted 
with the fragments out of which Lady Haigh and Georgia 
had formed their first rope, and Ismail Bakhsh had carried 
away the rest to put them hack with the luggage of which 
he had charge, the prisoners breathed more freely, and 
Stratford took advantage of the momentary pause to arrange 
plans for the day. 

“ Look here, Anstruther — we must keep it dark as long 
as possible that North is gone and that you are here in his 
place. It strikes me that the fellows who were looking for 
you yesterday all went too far afield, and that’s how they 
missed you. To-day they will argue that they had better 
look at home first, and they will set to work to search the 
ruins down below, and the rocks near the spot where we 
halted, and any caves there may he in the neighbourhood. 
I don’t know what sort of trackers they are here, but if they 
are anything like so good as the natives in India, they will 
find out in no time that the ruins were occupied until last 
night, and that a man on horseback left them and took 
a certain course. They may even be able to discover our 
way up and down the cliff by means of your footprints and 
North’s. Still, it will aU take a certain amount of time, 
and every hour of delay is so much gain for North. On the 
other hand, if they don’t happen to light upon his trail, and 
we keep you well out of sight, they may waste the whole 
day in an exhaustive search of the desert just round here, 
which would be nuts for us. You must pretend to be 
seedy, and stay in your room. If you don’t show up, 
perhaps they won’t find out the state of affairs for a day 
or two.” 

“ Beastly duU for me ! ” grumbled Eitz ; but he yielded 
to the inevitable, and returned to his room, resolved to make 
up for the fatigues of the night by a few hours’ additional 
sleep. Indeed, the whole party slept late that mornmg, and 


328 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


when Abd-ur-Eahim came in to inquire after the health of 
his prisoners, he found only Stratford prepared to receive 
him. This was fortunate, in that it postponed the danger 
of discovery, and Stratford gladly accepted the old man’s 
offer of a ride round the city in his company, as tending 
still further to avert suspicion. By one means or another, 
the whole of the day was tided over successfully, and the 
spirits of the captives began to rise. The next day, however, 
a new difficulty confronted them, in the shape of a deputa- 
tion from the mutinous cavalry escort, who had found their 
way to Bir-ul-Malik, and demanded an interview with their 
hero Dick. In vain were they assured that he could not 
and would not see them. They expressed their readiness to 
await his convenience for any length of time; and Stratford 
guessed that, fearing they had made their native land too 
hot to hold them, they entertained the design of crossing 
the frontier under Dick’s leadership, taking their women 
and children with them, and transferring their allegiance to 
Her Most Gracious Majesty, as a preliminary to enlisting in 
the Khemistan Horse. It was a distinct relief to Stratford, 
when he considered the spirit in which Dick would prob- 
ably have received this precious offer of service, to re- 
member that he was not in the place ; but it was a very 
embarrassing thing to have these men continually waiting 
and watching for an opportunity of seeing him. They were 
not interfered with in any way by Abd-ur-Eahim and his 
men — a fact which confirmed Stratford’s conviction that it 
had been arranged with them beforehand by Eath-ud-Din’s 
emissaries that they were to mutiny and desert when they 
did, and that their indignation respecting the misappropri- 
ated hakJisMsh was only part of a deep-laid plot. 

For some two or three hours the deputation sat waiting 
patiently outside the quarters allotted to the prisoners, 
while ambassadors went to them at intervals to represent 


FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND'S SAKE. 329 


the uselessness of their remaining, and to advise them to 
withdraw. Then fortune favoured them, and they stole 
a march on Stratford. He had gone into the inner rooms 
to speak to the ladies, while Kustendjian was busy in his 
own quarters, and the deputation grasped their opportunity, 
and, after surprising and binding the man on guard at the 
door, walked in. Dick's bearer was the only person who 
saw them enter, and he seized the moment, while they were 
admiring Stratford's toilet arrangements, in the first room 
they reached, to rush to his master’s quarters and throw a 
sheet over Fitz, who was lying on the bedstead, very hot 
and discontented, in his shirt and trousers. There was just 
time for him to turn his face to the wall and for the man to 
arrange the sheet over his head in the manner of the natives 
when they sleep, before the deputation entered. A murmur 
of delight broke from them when they saw the shrouded 
figure, and they sat down in a semicircle on the floor, to 
wait until their desired leader should awake, all with their 
eyes fixed on the sheet, beneath which Fitz lay writhing in 
agonies of laughter. In vain did the bearer attempt to 
dislodge them by threats of his master’s anger when ho 
awoke, in vain prophesy that their presence would do him 
harm ; they simply reiterated their determination to see the 
General Dik. At last, between laughter and the sheet, 
Fitz could bear no more ; and, almost suffocated with heat, 
he threw out an arm and pushed the covering partially 
aside. A murmur of astonishment showed him at once that 
he had done more than he intended. 

“ But the General Dik has light hair, and this man's is 
black ! ” were the words he heard, and the leader of the 
party added authoritatively — “ That is not the arm of the 
General Dik ! " 

“ The General Dik ! ” exclaimed the bearer, trying to 
improve matters — **nay, this is the cJiota sahib. Think 


330 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


ye that the Major Sahib would have suffered you to enter 
his quarters, ye sons of swine 1 ” 

‘‘ But the little gentleman was lost ! ” was the cry, as 
Fitz threw off the sheet and sat up. ‘‘Where, then, is 
the General Dikl Let us even seek Abd-ur-Eahim and 
ask him of the matter, for surely they have murdered our 
Lord Dik ! ” 

In an incredibly short space of time Abd-ur-Eahim had 
been informed of the miracle that had occurred, and was 
on the spot, only to become more and more mystified in 
the course of his inquiries. That Dick was gone and Fitz 
had taken his place was evident, but when or how the 
exchange had been effected was a mystery. Hone of the 
prisoners would offer any explanation. “ That is for you 
to find out,” was their answer to all questions, and Abd-ur- 
Eahim and his officers beat their brains in vain. Means, 
motive, and opportunity for the change alike appeared 
wanting, and the puzzled Ethiopians took refuge at last 
in the hypothesis put forward by one of their number — 

“It is the magic of the doctor lady ! She has changed 
one into the other to lead us astray and to baffle our search 
for the youth.” 


CHAPTEE XXL 

FOR A CONSIDERATION. 

“ I can’t go on wasting time like this,” said Georgia to 
herself the next morning as she stood on the terrace, drawn 
thither hy the fascination of the distant view of Bir-ul- 
Malikat. “Two whole days have slipped away already. 




FOR A COKSIDERATION. 


331 


and I have not got a step nearer to discovering the 
antidote, nor even to communicating with Khadija. What 
am I to do? When those women and children came 
to ask for medicine yesterday, I thought it was a hope- 
ful sign, and I suppose that if I stayed here long enough 
my fame might spread even as far as Bir-ul-Malikat ; 
but what good is that when Abd-ur-Rahim won’t hear 
of our setting foot outside the walls ? It was had enough 
before, when I knew Dick would be angry if I hinted 
at going over to pay Khadija a visit, but I think I 
might have talked him round. I only wish the dear hoy 
was here now to be angry, instead of being taken out of 
the way just when I had been thinking so unkindly about 
him. But I don’t see how Abd-ur-Rahim is to be worked 
upon, unless any of his own wives or children should 
happen to fall ill, and even then I am afraid I shouldn’t be 
able to persuade him to let me leave the town, if only for 
an hour or twa I wonder whether Rahah and I could 
concoct a letter to Khadija, and whether we could get 
it taken to her if we did ? I should think we ought to be 
able to pique her curiosity, or perhaps her covetousness, 
supposing that she could read the letter when she got it. 
Let me see, what could we say?” 

She knelt down with her arms on the parapet, and was 
revolving in her mind honied sentences which might cover 
an even more tempting meaning, and thus appeal to the 
witch’s cupidity, when her attention was attracted by a 
moving object between her and Bir-ul-Malikat. Now that 
the search for Dick had once more quitted the immediate 
neighbourhood of the fortress, the solitude of the desert 
was so seldom disturbed by any traveller that Georgia 
watched the approaching speck with interest. As it came 
nearer she saw that it was a man mounted on a donkey, 
but when it passed out of sight round the slope of the hill 


332 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


she thought no more about it. Presently, however, Rahah 
came in hot haste to seek her mistress. 

“ There is a messenger from Bir-ul-Malikat waiting out- 
side the door, O my lady, and he will not give his message 
to me. Is he to be allowed to speak to you ? ” 

“Oh, of course. Some one must be ill,” said Georgia, 
and she returned indoors and donned her hurka. The man 
whom she had seen riding across the desert was standing in 
the outer hall at a suitable distance from the doorway 
of the passage which led into the harem, and the door was 
open to allow of conversation. The visitor was respectably 
dressed, and had the appearance of a steward or other 
responsible servant, but his first words were not calculated 
to recommend his mission, at any rate as Rahah translated 
them. 

“ 0 doctor lady, Khadija, the mother of Yakub, sends 
thee greetings, and desires thee to visit her at Bir-ul- 
Malikat.” 

“ Why ? ” asked Georgia. “ Is she ill ? ” 

“ I know not,” answered the man, doggedly. 

“ Then why does she send for me % ” 

“ That is her business. It is not for any man to dispute 
the will of Khadija. 

Georgia pondered the matter for a moment. Her first 
impulse was to accept the invitation which had arrived 
thus opportunely, but its tone was so unpleasant that she 
began to suspect a trap. If her presence was really needed, 
Khadija could well afford to send her a more explicit 
message. It was evident that the matter was not one 
of life and death, or more would have been made of it, and 
Georgia had a lively recollection of the way in which 
she had been lured to the Palace at Kubbet-ul-Haj, to 
warn her against putting faith in mysterious messages. 
In any case, nothing could be lost, and the respect in which 


FOR A CONSIDERATION. 


333 


she was held would probably increase, if she declined to 
pay any attention to a summons worded as this one had 
been. 

“I go nowhere unless the messenger tells me plainly 
why I am wanted,” she said, sharply. 

“That is not a reply to satisfy Khadija,” returned the 
messenger. 

“Then she must find satisfaction elsewhere,” said 
Georgia. 

“Her power is greater than the doctor lady knows.” 

“ Thou art a fool,” said Eahah, contemptuously, her wrath 
aroused by the veiled threat. “ My lady also has medicines. 
Is she likely to fear Khadija % ” and she dropped the curtain 
as a sign that the interview was at an end. 

The messenger departed baffled, but it was not without 
many misgivings that Georgia heard his retreating footsteps 
crossing the tiled floor. Had she acted foolishly in re- 
fusing so peremptorily the witch’s request ? It was possible 
that the terms in which it was couched had been adopted 
merely in order to try her, and that she had lost once for 
all the opportunity of gaining an entrance to Bir-ul-Malikat. 
The thought troubled her a good deal, in spite of the 
persistence with which she assured herself that it was only 
prudent to act as she had done, and she wandered in and 
out of the various rooms, unable to settle to any occupation, 
pausing now and then on the terrace to look across the 
desert in case the messenger should be returning. En- 
grossed in watching for him, she failed to notice the 
approach of another traveller, and it was with some surprise 
that she received the news which Eahah hurried out to 
bring her. 

“ 0 my lady, another messenger ! He says that he is Yakub, 
the son of Khadija, but he will not say why he is come.” 

Once more Georgia assumed her burka and went to inter- 


334 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


view the visitor. He was a young man, somewhat foppishly 
dressed, and evidently a dandy in his way, his appearance 
producing in Georgia’s mind the impression that his mother 
had spoilt him as a boy, and now lavished upon him all the 
money she had to spare. He came forward with a slight 
swagger, and salaamed in rather a perfunctory way. 

“ 0 doctor lady, thy handmaid Khadija, my mother, 
sends thee greetings, and entreats thee to visit her at 
Bir-ul-Malikat.” 

“Why?” asked Georgia, with a directness which he 
seemed to find embarrassing, for he fidgeted with his girdle 
as he replied — 

“ Hay, 0 doctor lady, is it strange that my mother, having 
heard of thy fame, should be anxious to see thee 1 ” 

“ But why does she not come here ? Is she ill ? ” 

“ Ho ; thanks be to God ! ” was the answer. 

“ Then is there any one ill in her house ? ” 

“ That is not for me to tell the doctor lady.” 

“ Then neither is it for the doctor lady to go there,” and 
Georgia was about to retire into the harem again when he 
sprang forward. 

“Let not the doctor lady turn away the light of her 
countenance from her servant. There is one ill in the 
house.” 

“But who is ill, and what is the matter with him or 
her?” 

“ I cannot tell. I have given my message.” 

“ You must tell me if I am to come.” 

“ But it is not in my power, 0 doctor lady ! My mother 
has told me no more than that, and I know only that it is 
one of the women.” 

“ In that case, my friend, you had better return to Bir- 
ul-Malikat at once, and find out the age of the patient and 
her symptoms. Then I will either give you medicine for 


FOR A CONSIDERATION. 


335 


her, or I will ask leave from Abd-ur-Eahim to go and see 
her. It is absurd to come to me in this way. I should 
have no idea what to take with me.” 

“ But it cannot be, 0 doctor lady. My mother will tell 
me no more than I have told thee.” 

“ She must tell me more, if she wishes me to go and see 
her. You must make her understand that unless she is 
perfectly open with me she need not expect me to come. 
She can send me a letter if she likes, but I must have some 
idea what is the matter.” And Georgia retired into the 
interior of the harem, feeling that she was acting with a 
prudence such as Stratford himself could not have exceeded. 
That caution was necessary in this case she could not doubt. 
The repetition of the message, and the persistent mystery 
in which it was enwrapped, had raised strong suspicions in 
her mind that there was no sick person at all in the case, 
and that the request was merely a bait to lure her into the 
power of the sorceress — a trick which she did not intend 
should succeed a second time. Her desire was to be able 
to dictate terms to Khadija, not to be obliged to sue for her 
own release, and she awaited the further development of the 
situation with much interest and some anxiety. To pass 
away the time, she occupied herself in putting her medicine- 
chest in order, setting Eahah to work to polish her surgical 
instruments, a fask in which the girl took a keen delight, 
and even before the business was finished to her satisfaction, 
another visitor was announced. As before, Eahah went out 
to see who it was, and returned in a high state of excite- 
ment. 

“ 0 my lady, it is Khadija the sorceress herself ! Surely 
she has heard of my lady’s power, and comes to prove it.” 

Georgia’s heart beat a good deal faster than before, as 
she walked slowly down the long room, refusing resolutely 
to quicken her steps, but she succeeded in keeping her 


336 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


anxiety from betraying itself in her voice as she gave her 
visitor the usual greeting. The sorceress, a small shrunken 
old woman, with white hair and piercing dark eyes, looked 
at her sharply before making her hurried reply. 

“And upon thee he peace, 0 doctor lady! Will my 
lady be pleased to accompany her handmaid hack to Bir-ul- 
Malikat, where one of the household is grievously sick 1 ” 

“ I must hear more about the matter before I come,” said 
Georgia, turning and leading the way through the passage 
hack into the harem. “ Sit down and rest, 0 Khadija, and 
tell me who is ill,” and as she spoke she seated herself 
upon the divan opposite the visitor, while Eahah took her 
stand beside her to interpret what was said. 

“Nay,” said Khadija; “surely the doctor lady, who is 
so wise, needs not to he told anything*? She knows all 
things by her own wisdom.” 

This was a direct challenge, and Georgia saw that it would 
be necessary to administer a lesson to her visitor. She drew 
herself up and fixed her eyes sternly on Khadija. 

“ You are right, 0 Khadija. I know many things with- 
out hearing of them from you, and before we talk again of 
your matters I will ask you certain questions, and according 
as you deal truly with me in answering them or not, so will 
I decide whether I will grant your request.” 

Khadija looked up in evident surprise, not unmixed with 
apprehension, and Georgia went on, speaking in a low voice, 
but very slowly and distinctly — 

“You are learned in poisons, Khadija. Tell me, then, 
what was the drug that Kath-ud-Din used to poison the 
Queen of England’s Envoy — that drug which you gave 
himr’ 

“ God forbid 1 ” cried Khadija, raising her skinny hands 
in indignant protest. “Does the doctor lady think that 
her handmaid is as one of the evil women in the corners of 


FOR A CONSIDERATION. 


337 


tlie bazaars, who sell poisons to wives tired of their hus- 
bands? Far be it from me to deal with deadly drugs to 
such an end!” 

“I have other questions to ask, Khadija, but I shall 
speak with you no more unless you answer this one. Also 
it would be well for you to answer it truly, for I know the 
answer.” 

“If the doctor lady knows, why should she ask me?” 
grumbled the old woman ; but the response was prompt — 

“ That I may see whether you are dealing truly with me 
or not, 0 Khadija.” 

“It might have been the juice of a plant?” was the 
tentative suggestion. “Yea, doubtless it was the juice of a 
plant,” with the air of one who had just remembered a 
forgotten fact. 

“It might have been, but it was not.” 

“ It might have been some metal, or a deadly fruit, or 
the venom of a serpent ? ” the last with a cunning side-look 
at Georgia. 

“ Ko, it was none of those ; but we are coming to the 
point. Hasten, O Khadija ; my patience will not last for 
ever.” 

“ Could it have been the essence distilled from the dried 
body of — some beast ? ” 

Georgia rose from her seat and turned away, but the old 
woman threw herself before her and clutched her dress. 

“0 my lady, was it the poison of a deadly fish?” 

“Ah! now we are getting at the truth,” said Georgia, 
turning, but refusing to sit down again. “It was a fish, 
then; but how was the poison administered?” 

“ Surely the doctor lady knows all things. It would be 
vain if one should try to deceive her. There was but one 
small drop of the medicine, and it was to be given in a cup 
of coffee.” 

Y 


338 


PEACJ!! WITH HONOUR. 


And it was carried for safety in the jewel of a ring, 
which was to be dropped into the coffee. Is it not so, 
Khadija'^ But we will speak of the Father of sleep again 
presently. Tell me now who it is that is ill in your house, 
and what the sickness is.” 

As they resumed their seats on the divan, Khadija gave 
a lingering look into Georgia’s eyes, trying t© discover 
whether she was possessed of information upon this point 
also, but finding herself baffled, leaned forward and spoke in 
a whisper. 

“ 0 doctor lady, I will not deceive thee. It is my master’s 
daughter — my Eose of the World, my child Zeynab.” 

“ And what is the matter with her 1 ” 

0 my lady, I wiQ hide nothing from thee. The maiden 
is light of foot and venturesome as the wild goats. Some 
days ago — it may have been four or five — she was 
climbing upon the walls of the garden with the slave-girls, 
and she declared to them that she could go further than 
any of them along the wall where it was broken. Thy 
handmaid called to her with many rebukes to come down, 
but she was headstrong and went on, and presently a pari 
of the wall fell with her to the ground. Nor was that all 
for a great stone lay upon her foot and crushed it, and 
nothing that I have done will cure it.” 

“What have you tried?” asked Georgia — and the old 
woman gave a list of various native remedies she had 
administered, all of them sounding equally inadequate to ’ 
European listener, and the greater number either painful or 
disgusting. 

“ And now, 0 my lady, the foot is swollen to the size of 
twice my head, and it has turned black, and the maiden 
sobs and moans day and night.” 

“That sounds as though the bones were crushed,” said 
Georgia. “ I may have to take off the foot’' 


FOR A CONSIDERATION. 


339 


** Never, 0 doctor lady ! Better that the child should 
die, though she is the light of my eyes, and Fath-ud-Din 
will slay me if any ill befalls her. Bather than lose her 
foot she must die, for who wiU marry a woman with only 
one foot?” 

“ I will have a look at it, and see what I can do,” said 
Georgia. “It may be possible to remove the shattered 
bones without amputation. But you must understand that 
if I come I take the responsibility and the authority in the 
case. If it is only possible to save the girl’s life by ampu- 
tating her foot, it will have to be done. You must leave me 
to settle it with Fath-ud-Din, and I will take the blame.” 

“Nay !” cried Elhadija, with still more energy. “Fath- 
ud-Din must know nothing of this, whether the maiden 
recover or not. 0 doctor lady, she is all that I have, 
saving my son Yakub, and when I have seen her married 
to the King’s son Antar Khan I can die happy ; but Fath- 
ud-Din would take her at once from my keeping if he heard 
what had happened to her, or knew that I had brought in 
an English doctor-woman to see her. Thou wilt not tell 
him, 0 doctor lady I know that the English speak the 
truth. Fath-ud-Din hates them ; but if they have the skill 
to save his daughter, it is well to make use of it without his 
knowledge.” 

It is sad to be obliged to confess the humiliating truth, 
but it was this speech that decided Georgia to embark upon 
a course so unprofessional that, if it had become known in 
England, it would have been the duty of her medical eon- 
frbres to drive her with ignominy from their midst. She 
made up her mind deliberately to haggle for her fee before 
she visited the patient. 

“ Why was it that you gave Fath-ud-Din the poison with 
which to injure the Envoy 1 ” she asked, suddenly. Khadija 
looked astonished at the unexpected change of subject 


340 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ Nay, 0 my lady, is it not the duty of a servant to do 
her master’s wilH” 

“ You are not in the position of an ordinary servant to 
Fath-ud-Din — you are more of an adviser and helper. Why 
did you make it easy for him to poison a man who had done 
you no wrong ? ” 

“ I hate the English,” responded the old woman, sullenly. 
“They came and burnt my village because our men had 
raided into Khemistan, and my husband and my elder son 
were killed.” 

“And now you are obliged to rely upon an English- 
woman to kelp you to avoid the wrath of Fath-ud-Din 1 
Hear me, Khadija — I will come to Bir-ul-Malikat and do 
my utmost to cure Zeynab, but only on one condition.” 

“ And that is, 0 doctor lady 1 ” 

“ That you give me the antidote for the poison you call 
the Father of sleep, and tell me how to apply it. If I find 
you have deceived me, Fath-ud-Din shall know everything ; 
but if the Envoy recovers, all will be well.” 

“ 0 my lady, she will poison you as soon as you have 
cured the girl,” put in Eahah, in a frightened whisper. 

“I think not,” said Georgia. “Tell her that before I 
leave this house I shall write out an account of the cir- 
cumstances, to be sent immediately to Fath-ud-Din in case 
anything should happen to me.” 

Khadija received the information with a grunt. “ And 
what will the doctor lady do in return for the antidote ? ” 
she asked. 

“ I will go with her to Bir-ul-Malikat,” replied Georgia, 

“ and do all I can to save the girl’s foot. Whether I find 
that amputation is necessary or not, I will remain in the 
house until the patient is fairly on the way to recovery, 
that she may have the best possible chance.” 

The old woman nodded her head meditatively. “ Thou 


FOR A CONSIDERATION. 


341 


wilt cure my Zeynab, and I will give thee the antidote. 
That is fair. Thou wilt come at once, 0 doctor lady % ” 

“ I must make a few arrangements first. You are pre- 
pared to give my maid and me a room to ourselves, I sup- 
pose, as we shall he obliged to remain over the night % It 
may be necessary for us to spend four or five days with you.” 

“ Oh yes ; the doctor lady shall be lodged in the best 
part of the harem,- in the rooms of my ZeynaVs mother — 
may she rest in peace ! — and the women of the household 
shall see to her comfort.” 

“ That is well,” said Georgia, as she left the room and 
went to seek Lady Haigh. Eahah followed her. 

“ It is not safe, 0 my lady. She will kill you if she can, 
and there will be many opportunities if you are staying in 
her house.” 

“We must try to take adequate precautions, and baffle 
her, Eahah. In any case, the possibility of success is worth 
the risk.” 

Nevertheless, as Georgia knocked softly at the door of 
the sick-room, the thought crossed her mind : “ At any rate, 
I will make sure before I go that I shall be allowed to try 
my remedy if I succeed in bringing it back. It is a risk, 
undoubtedly, to go, and I shall hear a good deal about it 
from Dick if I ever return, so that I won’t enter on it as a 
mere speculation.” 

“ What is it, Georgie ? ” asked Lady Haigh, coming out. 
“ Is anything fresh the matter 1 ” for the repressed excite- 
ment in Georgia’s manner caught her attention at once. 

Instead of answering immediately, Georgia drew her to 
the window and threw open the lattice, so that the light fell 
full on the faces of both. 

“ Have you confidence in me. Lady Haigh 1 — as a doctor, 
I mean 1 ” 

“ Every confidence, Georgie. I would sooner have you to 


342 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


attend me if I was ill than any male doctor I know. But 
why do you ask ? Oh, my dear, don’t — don’t tell me that 
it is anything about Dugald ! He doesn’t seem quite so 
strong here, I know ; but it is only the change of air. 
Don’t say that he is really worse ! ” 

"Ho, that is not what I wanted to say, though it has to 
do with Sir Dugald. Just before we left Kubbet-ul-Haj, 
Lady Haigh, I found out the name of the poison Fath-ud- 
Din used against him. How I have the chance of obtaining 
the antidote ; but that involves my going to Bir-ul-Malikat, 
and perhaps remaining there for several days, attending 
Fath-ud-Din’s daughter. If I can cure her, I am to have 
the remedy given to me. What I want to know is, if I 
obtain the antidote, will you let me use it for Sir Dugald ? ” 

" But you must not go, Georgie ! I can’t let you run into 
danger, and what you propose would be fearfully dangerous.” 

" That is not the question, Lady Haigh ; and the danger 
is my affair. You can’t prevent my going, except by assur- 
ing me that you won’t let me try the antidote.” 

" Oh, Georgie, how can you be so unkind ? ” And Lady 
Haigh fairly broke down. “He is getting worse, I know 
it ; and he will slip away without ever recognising me or 
speaking to me again. I ought to prevent your going, I 
know; but I can’t. Oh, what wdll Major Horth say to 
me 1 Ho, Georgie, don’t go ! We have had our share of 
happiness, Dugald and I ; and how can I dare to risk your 
future and Major Horth’s 1 Oh, why did you ask me, and 
make me pronounce my husband’s death-sentence *1 Ho, 
don’t mind what I say ; I am nearly mad with trouble. 
You are not to go.” 

“ nevertheless, I am going,” said Georgia, her face very 
pale. “My only condition is that you are to use the 
antidote, if I can get it sent to you, whatever happens to 
me. You are quite right — I ought not to have asked you. 


FOR A CONSIDERATION. 


343 


It was only that it struck me suddenly that you might 
listen to Dick and Mr Stratford again, and it would all be 
no use. You promise me that you will try the antidote, if 
I can get it?” 

“ Nothing can be worse than his state now,” sobbed Lady 
Haigh. “ Yes, I will use it, Georgie. How could I do 
otherwise, when you are risking your life to obtain it for 
himi You believe in it, I can see that.” 

“ I do, and I hope that before long you will have good 
cause to believe in it too. Now I must tell Mr Stratford 
of my intended mission. I shall say nothing about the 
antidote, but I won’t get into trouble again by going off 
without leave.” 

Stratford was busied, with Fitz and Kustendjian, in com- 
piling the official chronicle of the events of the last few 
days, and it did not strike him that there was any special 
danger in Georgia’s going to visit a patient who had asked 
for her attendance. He knew nothing of the evil fame of 
Khadija, and thought that if Abd-ur-Eahim could be 
brought to give his consent, the ride to Bir-ul-Malikat 
would be a pleasant change for Georgia after her imprison- 
ment within the four walls of the harem. 

“ One of us might go over with the escort and fetch you 
back,” he suggested, “ if you could fix any special time.” 

“ I’m afraid I can’t,” said Georgia, with a guilty feeling 
of concealment, “for I don’t know how long I shall be. 
If it is necessary to perform an operation, I shall probably 
be detained some time. Could you spare Mr Anstruther 
to help me get my things together, and to see that the 
horses are properly saddled?” 

Fitz jumped up from the divan with great alacrity, and 
when Georgia had him alone she confided her plan to him, 
explaining the importance of her going to Bir-ul-Mulikat at 
this juncture, and the probability that her stay there might 


344 


PEACE WITir HONOUR. 


extend over several days. His first impulse was naturally 
to declare that he would go too, and to reproach her with 
unkindness and lack of confidence in him when she refused 
his escort somewhat decidedly. But Georgia had her 
answer ready. 

don’t want you at Bir-ul-Malikat, Mr Anstruther, 
because I think you would be more useful here. I want 
to arrange a code of signals which will show whether all 
is going well or not. Do you. know anything of helio- 
graphy? I have a small mirror in my dressing-case, and, 
if you have another, we could each signal night and 
morning how things were going, for I ought to know if 
Sir Dugald gets worse. I suppose one flash would mean 
‘ All right ! ’ and two ‘ Send help ! ^ ” 

Oh, we can do better than that,” said Fitz, whose face 
had brightened perceptibly when he found that he might be 
of use even though he was not allowed to act as Georgia’s 
escort. “I will jot down the Morse code for you. Miss 
Keeling, and then we can hold conversations. Long and 
short flashes will represent dashes and dots, you see, and 
none of the natives will be able to imitate our signals, 
though they might easily twig what one flash, meant, and 
signal ‘ All right ! ’ when it was all wrong. You didn’t 
know I studied telegraphy a little before I came out, did 
you? One never knows when things may prove useful, 
and I chummed up with a clerk in the Whitcliffe post- 
office, and got him to put me up to the dodges.” 

Leaving Fitz occupied in writing out the code, Georgia 
next made a raid on the stores under the care of Ismail 
Bakhsh, She felt it to be a matter of the greatest im- 
portance that Eahah and she should take their own pro- 
visions with them, since to depend on Khadija’s liberality 
would be merely a gratuitous invitation to her to poison 
them both, and with this danger in her mind she secured 


FOR A CONSIDERATION. 


345 


a sufficient quantity of meat extract and other portable 
articles of food to last for three or four days. Ismail 
Bakhsh demurred persistently to parting with the stores 
in his charge, except in obedience to an officially sigiK'd 
order, yielding only under protest; while, when he dis- 
covered, from some chance words let drop by Kahah, the 
real object of the journey, he could scarcely be restrained 
from going at once to Stratford and begging him to prevent 
it. Rahah overwhelmed him with shrill reproaches, for, 
little as she approved of the expedition herself, she was 
determined not to allow any man living to thwart her 
mistress’s wishes; but it was Georgia herself who forced 
him to give an unwilling acquiescence to the plan. Her 
plea that she was going to secure a medicine that might 
cure the Burra Sahib he dismissed with contempt, remark- 
ing that the Burra Sahib’s illness did not concern her — a 
slight to her profession which aroused all the ire of which 
Georgia was capable. Looking straight at him, she spoke 
sternly — 

Am I to ask your leave to go where I will, Ismail 
Bakhsh — you who have eaten my father’s salt ? lam going 
to Bir-ul-Malikat, and I forbid you to interfere. You take 
too much upon yourself.” 

Tsmail Bakhsh saluted in dumb amazement as Rahah 
translated the words with much gusto. 

“ Truly Sinjaj Kilin himself speaks in his daughter ! ” he 
murmured submissively, as Georgia increased by another 
tin the pile which Rahah was carrying, and left the room 
without vouchsafing him another glance. He watched the 
two women out of sight, and after securing the door of the 
store-room, went off to his quarters, revolving many things 
in his mind. 

Georgia’s preparations were now almost complete. Rahah 
had added several native loaves and a quantity of flour to 


346 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


her stock of provisions, together with a saucepan and a new 
water-jar, and Fitz brought Georgia the paper on which he 
had written out the Morse code, -and reminded her that it 
was possible, by means of two mirrors placed at right angles 
to each other, to obtain a flash when the sun might seem to 
be too low in the heavens for signalling to be attempted 
with success. The only thing now left to be done, although 
it was a very important one, was to obtain Abd-ur-Eahim’s 
consent to the expedition. It occurred to Georgia that in 
this she might find a powerful ally in Khadija, and before 
sending Eahah to ask the old commandant to come and 
speak to her, she returned to the room in which she had 
left the sorceress. When Abd-ur-Eahim appeared, Eahah 
was walking meekly behind him, and passing into the inner 
room, took her place behind her mistress without a word ; 
but it struck Georgia presently that she must have made a 
suggestion to him on the way. 

‘‘What does the doctor lady require?” asked Abd-ur- 
Eahim. 

“ I wish to go to Bir-ul-Malikat with Khadija, who has 
one sick in the house that she desires me to see,” said 
Georgia. ^ 

“ But the doctor lady must remember that it was not even 
perrnitted to her yesterday to visit the sick in the town, 
outside the citadel How, then, could her servant sufier 
her to cross the desert to Bir-ul-Malikat?” 

“But surely you will make an exception in favour of 
Khadija, who is the servant of your lord Fath-ud-Din ? ” 
urged Georgia, aghast at this new possibility of failure just 
as success seemed to be in her grasp. 

“ I know not,” replied Abd-ur-Eahim, cautiously. “Who 
is it that is sick ? ” 

“ Make no inquiry into matters that concern thee not* 0 
Abd-ur-Eahim,” put in Khadija, with more than the usual 


FOR A CONSIDERATION. 


347 


touch of sharpness in her tone. “ It is enough for thee that 
one of thy lord’s household is sick, and that I desire the 
doctor lady to come and see her. It will not he for thy 
health, nor for that of thine house, for thee to put difficulties 
in the way of her coming.” 

Ahd-ur-Eahim grew visibly paler under the implied threat. 
“ But what shall I say to my lord and to the English if any 
evil befalls the doctor lady 1 ” he asked, helplessly. 

“ What evil should befall her ? ” snapped Khadija. “ Am 
I a dog, to ill-treat the one who comes to help me 1 ” 

** Hay,” stammered Ahd-ur-Eahim. “ Far he it from me 
to hint evil concerning thee. But there are dangers in the 
desert, and perhaps among the servants at Bir-ul-Malikat 

there might he Hay, I cannot let the doctor lady go 

unless I have a surety in her place.” 

‘‘ WThom dost thou seek ? ” demanded Khadija. 

“Thy son, Yakub, that he may remain here until the 
doctor lady has returned in peace.” 

“It is well,” returned the old woman, after a scarcely 
perceptible pause. “ Why should I fear for my son, since 
I mean well to the doctor lady 1 Let him come, and wel- 
come.” 

“ Then I will ride with thee to Bir-ul-Malikat, and receive 
the young man before the doctor lady arrives there,” said 
Ahd-ur-Eahim, determined to leave no opening for the 
evasion of his conditions. 

Khadija gave an angry snort, hut to demur would have 
been to cast a doubt on the honesty of her own intentions, 
and she submitted to the inevitable. Ahd-ur-Eahim departed 
to order the horses to he got ready, and Georgia went to say 
good-bye to Lady Haigh, and to give her last directions 
respecting the treatment of Sir Dugald. Eitz received a 
parting injunction to take care of Colleen Bawn, and was 
further honoured by having Dick’s sword committed to his 


348 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


keeping. Georgia would have liked to take it with her, hut 
it was rather an unmanageable piece of luggage, and she gave 
it into his charge with no little reluctance. 

There was still another parting to he undergone, for as 
the three women passed through the front portion of the 
house and reached the steep path which led down into the 
courtyard, Ismail Bakhsh came to meet them, with his hand 
on the shoulder of his son Ibrahim. 

‘‘ 0 my lady,” he said to Georgia, “ thy servant would 
entreat thy forgiveness for his words of an hour ago. It 
was not for him to order thy doings, but he would fain serve 
thee still, for thy father’s sake. He is old, and cannot now 
fight as he did once, hut let my lady permit his son to take 
his place, and guard her in her journey and in her sojourn 
in the strange house.” 

“0 my lady, let him come,” whispered Eahah, and 
Georgia assented to the old man’s request. Ibrahim was 
not likely to be of much service as a guard, hut he might 
contrive to escape with the antidote if she and Eahah were 
prevented from leaving when they wished. 

“ It is well,” said Ismail Bakhsh. “ Guard well the 
doctor lady, 0 my son, for thy father ate her father’s bread 
for many years. Count thine own life nothing in comparison 
with the life of Sinjaj Kilin’s daughter, and it shall please 
thy father well, whatever issue it may please God to send to 
this matter.” 

“What says the old fool about Sinjaj Kilin?” demanded 
Khadija, catching the name. 

“ My lady is Sinjaj Kilin’s daughter,” said Eahah, with 
much pride ; hut the look on the old woman’s face made her 
recoil terrified. “ 0 my lady, she means to kill us,” she 
whispered fearfully when she could gain Georgia’s ear. 

“We can’t turn hack now, Eahah.” 

“ If the doctor lady should run into some danger in spite 


A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 349 

of me, and evil should befall her, thou wilt not hold me 
guilty ? ” Khadija was saying to Abd-ur-Eahim. 

** I^ay, surely, if it is no fault of thine,” was the response. 
“It is well,” said Khadija. 


CHAPTEE XXII. 

A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 

Although she would not for the world have allowed either 
Eahah or Khadija to discover the fact, Georgia was conscious 
of a distinct sense of shrinking as she rode under the gate- 
way of Bir-ul-Malikat, after seeing Ahd-ur-Eahim start on 
nis homeward journey with yoimg Yakub among his follow- 
ers. The place was less of a fortress, and more of a country 
seat, than Bir-ul-Malik ; but the high walls which surrounded 
the grounds of the great house, and about which a number 
of smaller buildings and huts were clustered, were quite 
capable of defence, and the assemblage of men visible about 
the gate and courtyard showed that a respectable garrison 
could be collected in time of need. Still, the fortifications 
were not of such a character as to be able to stand a pro- 
tracted siege, and Georgia guessed what was indeed the 
truth, that while they were useful to withstand the sudden 
raid of any marauding border tribe, who might be supposed 
to be swayed by the hope of plunder more strongly than by 
superstitious fear, the real bulwark of the place was Khadija’s 
reputation as a sorceress. Here she was supreme, and her 
fame protected alike her pr^ious charge and the servants 
and labourers who formed the little colony. When she had 


350 


PEACE WITH HONOUK. 


once for all secured the transference of Jahan Beg’s rights in 
Bir-ul-Malik to her master, by diverting the water-supply, 
she had removed from her path the only enemy on whom 
the universal belief in her supernatural power for ill had no 
effect, and who had been able to keep an eye on her doings. 
Every man and woman in the place was bound to Khadija’s 
service both by interest and by fear, and Georgia felt that 
it was indeed well that Abd-ur-Eahim had insisted on 
receiving her son as a hostage before he would intrust his 
prisoners to her tender mercies. 

Dismounting from their steeds in the inner courtyard of 
the great house, where a number of slave-girls were gathered 
to stare at them, the new arrivals were led by Khadija into the 
rooms which she had promised them, and which, as Georgia 
was delighted to find, looked out on the desert in the direc- 
tion of Bir-ul-Malik. After a short interval to allow them 
to arrange their possessions and to remove a little of the 
sand of travel, the old woman came to fetch them, and led 
them through the rambling, half- deserted house to the 
opposite wing. Everything in the rooms through which 
they were conducted spoke of vanished wealth and a gor- 
geous past. The divans were covered with rich silks, now 
faded, torn, and dirty, and costly ornaments of European 
manufacture stood broken and tarnished in corners. It 
was evident that Eath-ud-Din’s ambitious plans for his 
daughter’s future had not impelled him to keep her present 
abode even in tolerable repair, while it was not difficult to 
discern that Khadija cherished a strong preference for 
muddle and dirt over cleanliness and order. The state of 
the passages and of the bedrooms opening from them was 
extraordinary — they seemed to be filled both with the dust 
and with the rags of ages ; while in the innermost room of 
all, and therefore the one with the smallest allowance of air 
and light, was to be found the jewel enshrined in this sorry 


A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 


351 


casket, Fath-ud-Din’s daughter Zeynah, the destined bride 
of Antar Khan. 

“This is my Eose of the World, 0 doctor lady,” said 
Khadija, when she had led Georgia into the dark close room, 
and as she spoke she indicated a small form crouched among 
a heap of cushions on a broken bedstead. It was so dark 
that there was no possibility of seeing anything distinctly. 

“Get up on that chest, Eahah, and open the lattice a 
little way,” said Georgia ; and as the girl, with a vigorous 
wrench, forced open the small high window, which moved 
so stiffly that it was evident it had not been touched for 
years, the light disclosed a very white little Eose indeed, 
with a face drawn with pain, and grimed and blistered with 
crying. The child (she could not have been more than ten) 
was lying in an uncomfortable cramped position, with the 
injured foot fastened down to one of the legs of the bed- 
stead. This was Khadija^s latest idea of the way to reduce 
a swelling. Before saying anything, Georgia stooped and 
cut the cord, replacing the foot gently on the cushions, hut 
the slight movement drew an uneasy little cry from the 
patient. 

“Who are these people?” she demanded fretfully of 
Khadija, trying to arrange the folds of the dirty wrapper 
she was wearing into some semblance of dignity. “ I do 
not want visitors when I cannot put on my best clothes. 
Why hast thou brought these women here, 0 my nurse ? 
Who are they, I say?” sharply. 

“It is the great doctor lady, who will cure thy foot, my 
dove,” replied Khadija, somewhat shamefacedly. 

“ The Englishwoman ? ” exclaimed the child, starting up 
and glaring at Georgia with eyes like those of a hunted 
stag. Then, sinking down again, she burst into a storm of 
angry sobs, striking Khadija passionately when she tried to 
calm her. It was useless for Georgia to speak, and equally 


352 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


useless for the old woman to entreat her Kose, her dove, her 
eyes, her soul, her Queen Zeynah, to be quiet and let the 
doctor lady look at her foot. The sobs continued with 
unabated violence, mingled with torrents of vituperation 
directed at Khadija, and the child fought like a wild cat 
when any one attempted to touch her. 

‘‘Leave her alone,” said Georgia, with an imperative 
gesture, to Khadija ; “ come here, and let her have her cry 
out. Kow tell me what you have been saying to her to 
make her afraid of me.” 

“ Nothing, 0 doctor lady — nothing, in the name of God ! 
It is only that the maiden fears the face of strangers.” 

“ That would not account for her terror on finding out 
who I was. Speak, Khadija, and teU the truth, or I leave 
the house at once.” 

Terror-stricken by the threat, the old woman mumbled 
out an explanation, which Kahah translated to her mistress. 

“ She says, 0 my lady, that since she heard you were at 
Bir-ul-Malik she has frightened the child with your name. 
When she was going to try a new medicine, or to hurt her 
at all, she would say, ‘ If you cry or struggle, I will send 
for the cruel English doctor lady, who will cut ofi* your foot 
in little pieces,’ and the child was quiet at once.” 

“That is quite enough,” said Georgia, observing that 
Zeynah, guessing that the rest were talking about her, had 
hushed her sobs in order to try to hear what they were 
saying, and she returned to the side of the bed. The sobs 
began again at once, but Georgia laid a firm hand on 
the child’s shoulder and signed to Eahah to interpret for 
her. 

“ When you have quite finished crying, Zeynah, you can 
let me know, and I will show you something I have got 
here.” 

The sobg continued for a minute or two with equal 


A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 


353 


violence, but presently they slackened a little, and Zeynab 
inquired brokenly, “What kind of thing is iti” 

“Something you will like to see,” said Georgia; and 
Eahah added on her own account as she translated the 
words : “ The doctor lady says so, and the English always 
tell the truth.” 

“Do they*?” asked Zeynab, with interest. “I thought 
they were very bad people.” She had ceased to sob, but 
was too proud to ask for the sight she had been promised, 
and Georgia took something out of her bag, and waited. 
More from habit than from any expectation of making use 
of it, she had slipped in with her instruments a German 
toy which she had found very useful in winning the friend- 
ship of children in her old hospital days, and which had 
proved a source of great delight to hTur Jahan and the other 
women in the Palace at Kubbet-ul-Haj. It was carved in 
wood, and represented a cock standing on a barrel. The 
barrel contained a yard-measure, and when the tape was 
drawn out the bird flapped his wings, faster or slower 
according to the rapidity of the movement. 

' “ What is it ? ” inquired Zeynab at last, looking curiously 
at the cock, her interest stimulated by the doctor’s silence. 
For answer, Georgia pulled out the tape, and the child gave 
a shriek of wild delight. 

“ Wonderful, wonderful ! ” she cried. “ Is it alive?” 

Eahah explained that the bird was merely one of the 
marvels of the white people, and Zeynab, after a somewhat 
timid approach, ventured to pull the tape for herself. Then 
she was fairly won, and screamed with pleasure as the cock 
flapped his wings for her. Hot to make the wonder too 
cheap, Georgia reclaimed it after a short time ; but the ice 
was broken. Zeynab lay back on her cushions and looked 
at her musingly. 

“ Art thou really a woman ? ” she asked at last. 

Z 


364 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Yes. What else could I be ? ” asked Georgia, smiling. 

“I thought thou wert perhaps a man,” said the child, 
shyly ; and Georgia felt devoutly thankful that Dick was 
not there to hear her. “ Shall I tell thee why, 0 doctor 
lady 1 ” she went on, then turned suddenly to Khadija. ‘‘ 0 
my nurse, I am thirsty. Bring me some sherbet.” 

“One of the slaves shall prepare it for thee, my 
soul.” 

“ No, there is no one who makes it as thou dost. Fetch 
it for me, 0 my nurse, or I shall scream.” 

With a very bad grace Khadija complied with the 
imperious command, and hobbled out of the room. The 
moment she was gone, Zeynab took a folded piece of paper 
from beneath her pillow and laid it in Georgia’s hand. 

“ There ! ” she said, with a radiant smile. Georgia 
unfolded the paper, and found it to contain a wretched 
native print, vile alike in drawing, colour, and intention, 
and purporting to represent an English ball-room. Some 
resemblance between the open coat and cotton blouse which 
Georgia wore with her riding-skirt, and a man’s dress-coat 
and shirt-front, had struck the child, and led her to the 
conclusion that Georgia was a man. 

“ I see what you mean,” said Georgia, whose one glance 
at the print had filled her with loathing; “but, Zeynab, 
this is not a very pretty picture for you to have. If you 
will give it to me, I will find you a book with several 
pictures in it instead.” 

“Give me the book first,” was the prudent answer, as 
Zeynab reclaimed her treasure jealously. “This is all I 
have. What are thy pictures like, 0 doctor lady?” 

“ There is one of the Queen of England and many of her 
family,” said Georgia, thinking of some odd numbers of 
illustrated papers which had thus far survived wonderfully 
the various vicissitudes of the Mission. “I might even 


A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 


356 


find you two or three books if you will be good and let 
me look at your foot.” 

“ Oh, my foot ! ” Zeynab’s face was pursed up once more 
in readiness to cry. “ It hurts so dreadfully, and Khadija 
said thou wouldst cut it off.” 

“ Hot if I can possibly help it, I promise you. Will you 
be a brave girl, and let me look at it quietly? I don’t 
mind your crying out if I hurt you very much ; but you 
must not struggle, and I will be as gentle as I can.” 

“But why should I be hurt? I am Queen Zeynab.” 

“ Because I must hurt you a little now if you are to get 
well afterwards. If you are queen here, show it by being 
braver than any one else would be. I am treating you like 
a grown-up person, Zeynab, not like a baby.” 

“ It is well,” said Zeynab, with a frightened little smile. 
“ Thou wilt not cut my foot off bit by bit ? ” 

“Certainly not. If I should have to cut it off, I will 
give you something to prevent your feeling it at all, so that 
you won’t even know that it is being done ; but I hope it 
will not be necessary. How let me see it.” 

With great bravery the child allowed her foot to be 
disencumbered of the mass of dirty rags in which it was 
enveloped, and lay still with compressed lips while Georgia 
made her examination. The theory which the doctor had 
formed on hearing Khadija’s report she saw at once to be 
the correct one. The splintered bone was accountable for 
the swelling, and would have induced mortification if it had 
remained much longer in the wound. The foot was in a 
frightful state, but there was still just a possibility of 
operating with success. The operation must be undertaken 
at once, Georgia decided, if the limb was to be saved, and 
she turned to Kahah to tell her to get out the necessary 
anaesthetic. The movement, slight as it was, gave a jerk 
to the rickety bedstead, which communicated itself to the 


356 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


wounded foot, and forced a moan of pain from the child’s 
lips. Almost simultaneously with the sound, Khadija pre- 
cipitated herself into the room with a suddenness which 
suggested that she must have been listening at the door, 
and seizing Georgia by the shoulders, thrust her violently 
away from the bed and to the other side of the little room. 

“ What art thou doing to my child?” she demanded, stand- 
ing between the doctor and Zeynab, who was sobbing and 
wailing with the pain of the rough jar which the impetuous 
onslaught had caused to her foot. “ Answer me, 0 doctor 
lady ! I sent for thee to cure her, and wouldst thou torment 
her when I am not by ? ” 

“It is thou who art hurting me, 0 my nurse,” moaned 
Zeynab. “ The doctor lady did but shake me a little, but 
thou hast killed me. Go away, and let the doctor lady do 
what she likes.” 

“ What ! has the doctor lady bewitched thy heart away 
from me already ? ” cried the old woman, turning upon her. 
“ Ah, wicked girl, what hast thou there ? ” and she pounced 
upon the vile daub which was as good as a whole art gallery 
to Zeynab, and tore it to pieces. “ Have I not forbidden 
thee to see or hear anything of the evil doings of the wicked 
white people ? ” 

“ I hate thee ! ” screamed Zeynab, flinging herself upon 
her nurse, and attacking her with all her might. “The 
white people are good, and thou hast torn my picture. I 
love the doctor lady, but thou art a pig ! ” 

“ Hush, Zeynab, you will make your foot worse,” said 
Georgia, interposing between Khadija and her charge. “ I 
am going to give you something that will keep you from 
feeling pain, and then I hope I shall be able to do you some 
good.” 

“Nay,” cried Khadija; “wouldst thou steal away the 
child’s soul under pretence of saving her pain? I know 


A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 


357 


thee, 0 doctor lady, and thou shalt never shut up my Zeynah’s 
soul in a bottle with snakes and devils and unclean animals. 
I have heard of thy doings, and of the demons thuu hast to 
serve thee, and how thou dost steal souls that thou mayest 
make them work evil at thy will. Thou shalt not charm 
my Zeynah’s soul away to imprison it with them.” 

But it only needed this to determine Zeynab immediately 
in favour of the anaesthetic. 

“ Shut up my soul in a bottle 1 ” she exclaimed, with 
eager interest. But thou wilt not keep it there always, 0 
doctor lady 1 I should like it for a little while, but not for 
long.” 

“ I couldn’t put your soul in a bottle if I wanted it there,” 
said Georgia, laughing; “but I promise you that I won’t 
keep you without it longer than I can help.” 

“I tell thee thou shalt not use thy vile drugs on the 
maiden,” declared Khadija stoutly, as Eahah began to get 
out the necessary implements. 

“ Then how am I to perform the operation ? ” asked 
Georgia. 

“ I will call two of the slave-women, and they shall hold 
the child quiet.” 

“ 0 doctor lady, thou wilt not let her bring them to hold 
me down?” entreated Zeynab piteously. “They hurt so 
dreadfully.” 

“ Certainly not. I am in charge of this case, Khadija, 
and I refuse to undertake the operation unless the patient 
is put under chloroform. If she struggled, frightful harm 
might be done.” 

“ At least I shall be here to wake her if I see that thou 
art taking away her soul.” 

“ If you do, I shall have to chloroform you too. Ko, if 
you stay in the room, you will not move unless I tell you to 
do anything. Otherwise I must send you away.” 


358 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Khadija was vanquished. With a grunt she wrapped 
her head in her veil, and sat down on the floor at the head 
of the bed, while Georgia and Eahah proceeded with their 
preparations, the carved chest in which Zeynab’s best clothes 
were kept serving as an impromptu operating-table. The 
poor little patient grew paler and paler as she caught sight 
of one horror after another, for she insisted on raising 
herself on her elbow to look at everything, and demanded 
that Eahah should show her the instruments one by one. 
Georgia put a stop to this at once, but the child’s terror was 
already so extreme that nothing but the determination not 
to allow Khadija to triumph kept her from entreating the 
doctor lady to postpone the operation. She looked up with 
a pitiful smile when the chloroform was about to be admin- 
istered, and seemed almost ready to beg for a respite ; but 
Khadija was leaning forward and scanning her face keenly, 
on the alert to take advantage of the slightest willingness 
to yield, and she said with a little gasp — 

“ 0 doctor lady, I am not frightened. Go on, 0 girl.” 

But when the chloroform had taken effect, and Eahah 
moved aside a little to enable Georgia to reach the patient 
more easily, Khadija caught a glimpse of her charge and 
sprang up. 

Thou hast killed her, O doctor lady ! Alas, my Eose of 
the World, that thy Khadija should have given thee into 
the hands of the infidel ! ” and she was about to shake the 
child violently, in the hope of restoring her to consciousness; 
but Georgia’s patience was at an end. 

Take her out,” she said sharply to Eahah, to the intense 
delight of the handmaiden; and before Khadija realised 
what was happening to her, she was outside the door, and 
the door was bolted on the inside, while Eahah assured her 
emphatically through the crack that the child was alive, and 
would remain so if she would only keep quiet, but that if 


▲ SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 


359 


she made any noise or disturbance the worst results might 
confidently be expected to ensue. Terrified by the realisa- 
tion of the fact that her darling was now absolutely in the 
power of the strangers, Khadija crouched silently at the 
door and made no sign, while in the respite afibrded by her 
exclusion from the room, Georgia, with Eahah’s assistance, 
performed her task speedily and successfully. The splinter 
was extracted and the broken bone set, after which the 
wound was carefully dressed, with the aid of appliances 
such as had never been seen in Ethiopia before, and Rahah 
contemplated the result with pride. 

‘‘Regular hospital treatment!” she said, adopting the 
words she had once heard Dr Headlam use to Georgia with 
reference to a case of his own, and then turned her attention 
to making as comfortable a bed as possible out of the cover- 
lets and cushions scattered about, that the patient might 
not return to consciousness on the wretched bedstead she 
had occupied hitherto. When everything was finished the 
door was opened and Khadija again admitted. She came in 
suspiciously, and looked askance at all she saw ; but, on 
finding that Zeynab was sleeping quietly, sat down beside 
her without uttering a word. 

The operation once successfully completed, Georgia and 
Rahah settled down to an extremely monotonous mode 
of life for several days. Their sole interest and excite- 
ment was caused by the improvement or relapses of the 
patient, and by the necessity of keeping an eye on Khadija. 
Kot only was it extremely likely that the old woman would 
try to poison them, but she also cherished a lively distrust 
of Georgia’s dressings, and there was a constant risk that in 
a frenzy of rage she might tear them off, and even interfere 
with the wound itself, in which case poor Zeynab would 
have been worse off than before. But as the days passed 
on and Zeynab continued to make progress, the old woman 


360 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


began to believe once more in the possibility of her charge’s 
regaining perfect health. The little face which had been so 
pinched and pain-lined began to recover its bloom, and 
Georgia found it possible to believe in the loveliness the 
report of which had spread even to Kubbet-ul-Haj, and 
which had earned for Zeynab her pet-name of Eose of the 
World. Warm water and the gift of a piece of the doctor 
lady’s soap were powerful inducements to the child to keep 
her face clean, and the consequent improvement in her 
appearance surprised no one more than Khadija. Her wild 
outbreaks of wrath ceased gradually as Zeynab’s eyes grew 
brighter and her cheeks less thin, and her manner to 
Georgia became markedly gracious. But this did not lead 
to any slackening of the precautions observed by the visi- 
tors, for they knew that their danger was considerably 
increased by the fact that they had performed their part of 
the bargain, whereas Khadija had not as yet discharged 
hers. Every day Eahah cooked their food over a spirit- 
lamp and drew from the well the water they needed, while 
Ibrahim also was provided for out of the stores they had 
brought with them. For the hours of darkness, moreover, 
Eahah patented a scheme of defence of which the idea was 
entirely her own. Before leaving Bir-ul- Malik, she had 
begged from Ismail Bakhsh a box of tin-tacks, and every 
night she strewed these upon the floor, with the points 
upwards. Georgia remarked that if the house should catch 
fire, and Eahah and she found it necessary to escape 
hurriedly, they themselves would be the first to sujQfer; 
but Eahah was not deterred from adopting her plan by 
this consideration. She had also possessed herself of a 
whistle, with which it was her intention to summon 
Ibrahim from his slumbers to the rescue, in case of an at- 
tack in force; and she explained this to him very clearly, only 
to discover that the idea of entering the harem, even on an 


A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 


361 


errand of such urgency, appalled him almost more than the 
prospect that murder would be done if he stayed outside. 

“ But I have found out something else from Ibrahim, 0 
my lady,” said Kahah, when describing the result of the 
interview to her mistress. “ I know why it is that Khadija 
hates the name of Sinjaj Kilin, your father. He it was 
who attacked her village, and whose soldiers killed her 
husband and son, and she has been thirsting for vengeance 
ever since. « That is why I think we are not safe here for a 
moment, for in revenging herself upon you she would 
obtain her heart’s desire.” 

But Georgia turned a deaf ear to the suggestion that she 
should leave her patient before her recovery was assured, 
although it was repeated in Fitz’s first heliographic message 
on the morning after her arrival. He appeared to be in a 
conversational mood. 

Stratford was like a dozen wild cats last night when he 
found you were not coming back just yet. He is afraid 
North will skin him alive when he turns up again. Lady 
Haigh is awfully unhappy about you. She says she is 
certain you are in great danger, and begs you to come back 
at once, and not to mind about the medicine.” 

In answer to this, Georgia flashed back by slow degrees : 

“We are quite well and safe. Operation successfully 
performed, but I must stay here a few days to look after 
patient.” 

To this determination she continued to adhere firmly, 
notwithstanding the agonised entreaties to return which 
Fitz transmitted to her every day from Lady Haigh. He 
kept her informed of Sir Dugald’s condition, and she 
directed any slight changes of treatment she thought advis- 
able, but consent to come back without the antidote she 
would not, in spite of the alarms of her present position. 
For the knowledge of these she was in large measure 


362 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


indebted to Ibrahim, who, for a professed fatalist, took an 
extraordinary delight in prophesying evil, and communicated 
all his anticipations of danger most faithfully to Eahah. 
Consequently, when Eahah came running back in much 
excitement one evening, after taking Ibrahim his supper, 
her mistress was not affected by her news to the extent she 
had expected. 

“ 0 my lady, Ibrahim says he is sure some evil is going 
to happen. Several messengers have come in. during the 
day, bringing news to Khadija, and he is certain that one 
of them was from Kubbet-ul-Haj. And Khadija has been 
going round among the men here, stirring them up against 
the English, and they have all got out their weapons, and 
they are cleaning their muskets and sharpening their swords. 
Ibrahim knows that they must be going to kill us to-morrow 
— at least he says so ; but I bade him teU the men of the 
vengeance the English would take on them if any ill befell 
us, and of the great power and hunger for war of the Major 
Sahib, and how he was going to marry you. I said it very 
loud, so that Khadija might hear, for she was not far off, 
but she only laughed.” 

“ She was probably amused by your suspicions of her,” 
said Georgia, absently. The fact that she had been able 
this evening to alter the dressings on Zeynab^s foot, and 
allow the wound to close, was much more interesting to her 
at the moment than Ibrahim’s suspicions. If all continued 
to go on as well as it had done hitherto, she ought to be 
able to return in triumph to Bir-ul-Malik in a day or two 
with the all-important antidote. 

Eahah shook her head over her mistress’s lack of interest 
in her great news, and watched jealously for an opportunity 
of proving that her own excitement had been justified. She 
found one the very next day, and immediately rushed into 
Georgia’s room once more with her veil flying behind her. 


A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 


363 


0 my lady, there is really something wrong ! Ibrahim 
is gone — at least, I cannot find him — and when I asked the 
men where he was, they only laughed at me and reviled me. 
And there are watchmen upon the towers, making signs to 
one another, and aU the men and boys are gathered together 
with their weapons in their hands, and the women and 
children are sharpening knives and talking of plunder. 
What shall we do 1 ” 

“We can’t do anything, except keep quiet and show no 
fear,” said Georgia. “ I don’t think they would have needed 
so much stirring up to attack two women, Eahah. No doubt 
they are not thinking of us at all Very likely they know 
that some of the wild tribes intend to attack the place, and 
they are preparing to defend it. Perhaps Ibrahim is help- 
ing them down at the gate. Whatever you do, don’t look 
frightened.” 

“ Frightened ! ” said Eahah, with high scorn, and sat 
down in the comer to polish Georgia’s instruments, A 
little later Khadija entered, and asked Eahah to go and 
sit beside Zeynab and amuse her, since she seemed restless, 
and she herself was anxious to take the doctor lady into the 
garden and point out to her some of its beauties. Eahah 
looked appealingly at her mistress, entreating her mutely 
not to accept the invitation, but Georgia was firm in the 
principles she had just enunciated. Any show of fear or 
suspicion would only serve to irritate Khadija and put her 
on her guard ; and moreover, if her purposes were evil, she 
could carry them into execution as well in the house as out 
of doors. Her decision seemed to be justified by the old 
woman’s behaviour, for she hobbled along beside her, talking 
as pleasantly as an ingrained habit of snappishness Would 
permit her, and appeared anxious to exhibit the different 
nooks and arbours which formed the chief attraction of the 
garden. Georgia could not understand nearly all she said, 


364 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


but an emphatic word now and then, eked out by signs, 
gave her some idea when admiration was expected of her, 
and the walk was marred by no difference of opinion. 

Passing through the garden, they came at last to one of 
the watch-towers of which Eahah had spoken, perched upon 
the crest of the hill, and overlooking the great gateway and 
the paved court, containing the famous well and surrounded 
by stables and other outbuildings, into which the gate 
opened. Khadija proposed that they should ascend the 
tower and look at the view, and Georgia acquiesced at 
once in the suggestion. To her surprise, the summit was 
occupied by several men armed to the teeth, in addition to 
the watchman ; but these made way without a word for 
the two women, and they stood looking out on the desert 
The view thus obtained was a very wide one, and Georgia 
noticed at once a distant cloud of dust, which appeared to 
be nearing the place. Khadija’s eyes were also fixed upon 
this cloud, and Georgia concluded that it must denote the 
approach of the invading band against whom the warlike 
preparations were being made. 

For some time those on the top of the tower stood 
watching the dust-cloud without uttering a word. As it 
came nearer, there were occasional glimpses of moving men 
and animals and the momentary fiash of steel, and Georgia 
felt that the men behind her were pressing closer and fairly 
panting with excitement. 

“ 0 doctor lady,” said Khadija, “ thou seest these horse- 
men. Knowest thou who they are 1 ” 

“ They ride in order. Ko doubt they are soldiers.” 

“ Is that all 1 Look again, 0 doctor lady.” 

“ They wear turbans — some of them, at least. They have 
lances with pennons. They seem to he in uniform. It is 
dark, like the uniform of the Khemistan Horse. They are 
the Khemistan Horse ! ” 


A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 


365 


“ Look again, 0 doctor lady ! ” 

Georgia looked. The cloud of dust had become much 
less opaque as it approached, and the forms of the mounted 
men could be clearly discerned. There were two or three 
officers among them, and Georgia’s gaze was riveted on the 
foremost. From the moment in which she had obtained 
her first glimpse of him through the flying dust, it had 
seemed to her that there was something familiar in his 
appearance; and now, as she bent over the parapet and 
shaded her eyes with her hand, she knew that she had not 
been mistaken. It was Dick, leaning forward on his horse, 
as though from utter weariness, and looking neither to right 
nor left as he rode. 

“ Thou seest now, 0 doctor lady ? ” asked Khadija. 

“Yes, I see; but what of thatT’ 

“Only this — and this.” Khadija’s bony finger pointed 
first to a spot some distance in advance of the little British 
column, where the track wound through rocky ground, with 
sand-cliffs of some height rising on either side — the dry bed 
of a winter torrent, probably — then to the force as it marched. 
“ All the men of Bir-ul-Malikat in ambush there, 0 doctor 
lady, and here the English riding into the ambuscade with- 
out knowing of it.” 

“ But why have you brought me here 1 ” asked Georgia. 

Khadija understood the tone of the question, though not 
its words. 

“ To see what happens, 0 doctor lady. Kot to warn thy 
friends — oh no ! One cry — one sign of warning — and thou 
diest. Thou seest these men here. Their daggers are ready, 
and they fear not to use them.” 

Georgia stood looking over the parapet, with both hands 
gripping its rough edge. The situation was quite clear to 
her without the aid of Khadija’s words, which she under- 
stood only partially, and there was no doubt in her mind as 


366 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


to the course to be taken. Behind were the daggers of the 
fanatics, who were Khadija’s willing tools — in front, Dick 
and his comrades, riding unconscious to their doom. Of 
course she would warn them. They were almost abreast of 
the tower now, as she stood with beating heart making her 
hurried calculation. The warning must necessarily be the 
work of a moment, for there would be no more time allowed 
her. One moment to tear off her hurka and wave it wildly 
as a signal, and to shriek ‘‘ Dick ! ambush ! ” using her 
hands as a speaking-trumpet. She knew the extraordinary 
distance to which voices are carried by the dry desert air, 
and she had no fear as to his hearing her. 

But as she stood waiting for the critical moment, with her 
hands already raised to fling off the hurka, a sudden dis- 
turbing thought came to her. Why had Khadija brought 
her to that spot at that moment, when she must know her 
well enough by this time to be sure that she would at least 
make an attempt to warn the column of its danger 1 Was 
it not possible that for some reason or other she wished her 
to give the alarm ? It was an awful moment, but Georgia’s 
whole training had been such as to inculcate presence of 
mind and prompt decision in emergencies. Just as the 
British force reached the point at which she had determined 
that her warning should be given, she turned her back 
deliberately on the desert, and, sitting down on the para- 
pet, buried her face in her hands. 

“Ah, the doctor lady is prudent said Khadija, in a 
low snarl of intense rage. But Georgia scarcely heard her. 
She was praying as she had never prayed before, and at the 
same time listening intently for any sound of conflict. For, 
after all, she might have decided wrongly. At last she 
could bear the uncertainty no longer, and looked round. 
The dreaded nullah had been reached, and the troops were 
passing through it without opposition, two or three dis- 


A SILENCE THAT WAS GOLDEN. 


367 


mounted men scrambling along the brink on either side as 
scouts. There was no ambuscade there, at all events. 
Almost before she had had time to realise the full signifi- 
cance of this, the gleam of a weapon in the courtyard below 
her caught her attention, and she became aware that the 
outbuildings around it were filled with armed men crouch- 
ing low, while the gate was standing partially open. There 
had been a trap laid here, that was evident, for a low growl 
of concentrated anger rose to her ears, as the liers-in-wait 
began to perceive that the prey had escaped them. Then 
the sound was echoed by the men on the tower, as they 
drew their daggers and turned towards Georgia with words 
and looks which intimated that in her they had, at any rate, 
a scapegoat for their disappointment. With a calmness 
which surprised herself, she did not even spring to her feet, 
but remarked quietly to Khadija — 

“ Zeynab is not yet recovered, and Yakub is still at Bir- 
ul-Malik.” 

With a muttered curse the old woman pushed her way 
through the group and ordered the men back. They obeyed 
sulkily, and Georgia, struck by the irony of the situation 
and the utter discomfiture of her enemies, began to laugh. 

"She laughed until the tears came into her eyes, and the 
men looked at one another and muttered, “ She is certainly 
mad,” while Khadija, with disappointed hate depicted on 
her face, motioned to her to return to the house. Still 
laughing weakly, Georgia obeyed, and found her way back 
to Kahah, to whom she recounted what had happened 
during the last half-hour. Deeply interested, the girl pro- 
mised to do her best to unravel the mystery, and when 
evening came she returned to her mistress overflowing with 
news. 

“ 0 my lady, I have found it all out. I have seen Ibra- 
him. He is set free now, but they had shut him up in a 


368 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


dungeon, that he should not warn the Major Sahib, because 
he had discovered their plans, and he says that all the men 
are cursing you. The messenger from Fath-ud-Din yester- 
day brought orders that on no account were his servants to 
attack the English, for that then his life would be forfeited ; 
but Khadija could not bear to lose her revenge when she 
had so nearly obtained it, and she thought it would be all 
right if she could make the English attack first. She 
wanted you to cry out, 0 my lady, because she thought 
that the Major Sahib would know your voice, and thinking 
you were a prisoner and in danger, would rush to save you. 
The men in the courtyard were told to shut the gate when 
as many as possible of the English had come in, and to kill 
them if they resisted — as naturally they would. Then she 
could not be held to blame if the servants killed the 
English, who had forced their way into the place and 
provoked a fight, or if you were found to have fallen from 
the tower in trying to reach the Major Sahib. But you 
have brought all her plans to nothing, and the Major Sahib 
ought to be proud that he will have such a wife.” 


CHAPTEE XXIIL 

HABDLT WON. 

Unfortunately, the Major Sahib, not knowing all the 
circumstances of the case, did not look at things quite in 
the same light as Eahah, and Georgia was not left long in 
doubt as to his view of the matter. Betaking herself to the 
terrace outside her room at the hour when she usually carried 


HARDLY WON. 


369 


on her heliographic communications with Fitz, she was sur- 
prised to find that the conversation was opened by a com- 
plicated series of flashes in such rapid succession that she 
could not read them off! 

“ It can’t be Mr Anstruther,” she said to herself ; “ he 
never begins in that way. Can it be Dick who is doing it 1 
It looks like some kind of private signal — or it might be 
‘ Attention ! ’ flashed very fast. Oh, here is the message ! ” 

But the perplexity on her face only became deeper when 
she had written down the words, for their tone was not of 
the pleasantest. 

“ Get your things ready at once. I am coming to fetch 
you. Dick.” 

Was the victory to be snatched away when it was so 
nearly within her grasp 1 Georgia set her teeth hard as she 
flashed back — 

“ Cannot possibly leave to-night. Come for me in the 
morning. Georgia.” 

The answer arrived quickly. 

“ I am starting immediately, and shall expect to find you 
ready.” 

This was a little too much. Georgia’s calmness, which 
had been subjected to a considerable strain already by the 
excitements of the day, gave way altogether, and it was with 
a hand that trembled a good deal that she signalled back — 

“ I must beg of you not to come, as I decline to start to- 
night.” Then, repenting of the tone of her message, she 
added, “ I am longing to see you, but it is absolutely impos- 
sible for me to come before to-morrow morning.” 

This time no answer was returned ; but after a while, 
during which she stood watching anxiously, and wondering 

2 A 


370 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


whether Dick was actually on his way to fetch her, she saw 
a solitary flash. This was the sign that Fitz was beginning 
operations, and she signalled at once — 

“ What is Major INTorth doing?” 

“Gone to his quarters,” came the answer, “in a vile 
temper. Excuse me, but this is true. Looks seedy, too ; 
hut he brought a surgeon with his force, so don^t worry 
about him.” 

“ Please tell him from me ” began Georgia, but the 

flashes came again — 

“ He won’t let me in. Stratford is calling me. I must 

go-” 

Georgia left the heliograph with a sigh, for it was growing 
too late to catch the sunlight properly, and she had a hard 
piece of work before her this evening, the very crown and 
object, indeed, of her visit to Bir-ul-Malikat. Eeturning to 
Zeynab’s room, she found Khadija sitting crouched in her 
usual attitude upon the divan, and addressed her — 

“ I have performed what I promised, Khadija. Zeynab’s 
foot is getting on most satisfactorily, and needs only proper 
treatment and careful dressing, so that it is quite safe for 
me to return to Bir-ul-Malik to-morrow. I have shown the 
slave-girl, Bilkis, how to dress the wound, and I will send 
her over a good supply of lint and bandages and the other 
things I use, so that she may continue the treatment. She 
can do the work as well as I can, if she has the right 
materials. Kow I am come to claim my reward. Give it 
to me, and let us go in peace.” 

“What was it that I promised thee?” asked Khadija 
slowly, when Eahah had translated her mistress’s words. 

“ The antidote for the poison which they call the Father 
of sleep, and the directions for applying it,” said Georgia, 
promptly. 

“ Ah, the antidote ! — it is well ; I have it here,” and 


HAKDLY WON. 


371 


Khadija drew a small square box from one corner of her 
ample veil, which was tied up in a knot. “Take it, O 
doctor lady, and may it succeed in thy hands ! ” 

“ Is this all that is necessary % ” asked Georgia, opening 
the box, and finding in it only a small quantity of flaky 
white powder. 

“ I swear to thee that it is all thou canst need.” 

“ And how is it to he applied 1 ” 

“ Nay ; I made no promise to tell thee that.” Khadija’s 
sharp little eyes gleamed cunningly. 

“Very well, Khadija; then I shall remain here, and 
Yakub at Bir-ul-Malik, and my friends there will send a 
message to Fath-ud-Din at Kuhhet-ul-Haj.” 

“ Nay ; I was hut joking, 0 doctor lady. Thou shalt do 
as I hid thee,” and Georgia noted down the details of what 
sounded like a rude Turkish hath, repeated three or four 
times, and varied by the administration of copious draughts 
of a decoction made with the powder in the box. 

“ And you are sure that you have given me all that is 
necessary for effecting a cure 1 ” asked Georgia, suspiciously, 
for the powder possessed no healing qualities that were 
perceptible either to sight, smell, or taste. 

“ 0 doctor lady, I have given thee all. I swear it to thee 

by ” and Khadija ran glibly through a catalogue of 

sacred persons and objects, followed by an even more solemn 
list of divine names. Still Georgia was not satisfied. She 
looked helplessly at Eahah, for she could not hit upon any 
means of convicting Khadija of her falsehood, if falsehood 
there was. But Eahah was equal to the occasion. 

“ I will make her tell the truth, 0 my lady. Lay thy 
hand on the head of the child Zeynab, 0 Khadija, and 
swear as I shall bid thee.” 

“ 0 doctor lady! 0 my nurse! let it not be on my head!” 
expostulated Zeynab in a terrified voice, as Khadija rose 


372 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


reluctantly from her seat to comply with the imperious 
demand. 

“Dear child, it can’t hurt you,” said Georgia. “It is 
merely a form.” 

“ ISTay,” said Eahah, “ rather is it that if any evil befalls 
thee, it is through Khadija’s lies, and by her fault. Go 
to the other side of the room, 0 my lady. Stoop down, O 
Khadija ; lay thy hand here, and say after me, ‘If I have 
told lies to the doctor lady, and have not given her all 
that I promised, and if the Envoy cannot be cured by the 
medicine she holds in her hand, then let a curse light upon 
this child. May she wither away in her youth, and not 
live to see her marriage night. May the disgrace of her 
father ever continue and increase, and his name be blotted 
out without a son to bear it after him. May the house 
that should have mated with princes fall and perish in 
dishonour, and may all that remain of it live only to 
shame it.’ ” 

“ 0 my nurse, let not the curse light upon me ! ” sobbed 
Zeynab. 

“ Be quiet, 0 daughter of iniquity ! ” said Khadija angrily, 
and laying her hand on the child’s head with a menacing 
pressure, she repeated the words after Eahah. Zeynab 
made no further protest, but lay silent, looking white and 
frightened, much to the alarm of Georgia. She regretted 
deeply that she had allowed Eahah to make so solemn an 
attempt to work upon the superstitious fears of the old 
woman, and urged her to withdraw the curse, lest the 
thought of it should do Zeynab harm, but Eahah refused 
stoutly. 

“ I cannot withdraw it, 0 my lady. Khadija has invoked 
it, and if she was trying to deceive thee, she knew the 
danger that she was bringing upon the child. If she has 
dealt with us honestly, all will yet be well ; but if evil 


HAKDLY WON. 


373 


befalls her master’s house, we shall know that it was her 
own doing.” 

“You are certainly not so well to-night, Zeynab,” said 
Georgia, laying her hand on the child’s forehead as she pre- 
pared to leave her at bedtime. “ Is anything the matter 1 
Surely you are not thinking of those foolish words 1 I am 
very sorry that I let Rahah say them, but they can’t do you 
any harm.” 

The child made no answer, but looked up with a fright- 
ened face, and Rahah translated Georgia’s first remark for 
the benefit of Khadija. The old woman sprang up from 
the divan instantly, in a towering rage, and after a hasty 
glance at Zeynab, turned upon Georgia and Rahah, and 
drove them out of the room with a storm of curses, alleging 
that they had bewitched the child in order to frighten her. 
When they reached their own room, Georgia was inclined 
to be low-spirited over the issue of her mission, but her 
maid displayed no signs of discouragement. 

“Wait !” she said mysteriously, and they waited, taking 
the opportunity of gathering their possessions together in 
view of the return to Bir-ul-Malik the next day. They had 
been in their room about an hour, when the jingling of 
anklets along the passage, and a hurried knock at the door, 
announced a visitor. Rahah opened the door cautiously, 
and Khadija entered and walked up to Georgia. 

“ Give me the medicine,” she said abruptly, and taking 
from her bosom a small phial, half filJ'od with a clear colour- 
less liquid, she emptied the powder into it from the box, 
shook up the resultant mixture, and closing the phial, 
handed it back to Georgia. 

“ Take it, 0 doctor lady,” she said. “ But for the curse, 
thou shouldst never have had it. But truly God is great, 
and He is good to the accursed English, so that the old 
spells and the magic of our fathers cannot stand before 


374 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


theirs. And now come and take away the curse from my 
Rose of the World, for I cannot see her fade and die before 
my eyes.” 

Followed by Eahah, Georgia returned to ZeynaVs room, 
where they found the child tossing restlessly on her bed. 

“ 0 my nurse, take it away ! ” was her cry. “ I feel the 
curse ; I know it has come upon me. I cannot sleep. 
There is a weight on my heart and a fire in my bones, and 
it is thou that art killing me.” 

“ The curse is gone, my dove,” said Khadija. “ I have 
given the rest of the medicine to the doctor lady.” 

“ But how can I believe thee 1 I feel no better,” moaned 
Zeynah. 

“ 0 doctor lady, wilt thou still kill my child ? ” cried the 
old woman in a frenzy. “ I could give thee no more if she 
were dying at this moment. Take away from her thy curse 
and thy evil enchantments.” 

Sitting down beside the bed, Georgia took the hot little 
hands into one of hers, and with the other smoothed back 
the tangled hair from the child’s brow. It was more than 
an hour before all her stories and her talk could banish the 
haunting horror from Zeynab’s mind, and induce her to 
close her bright eyes, and her doctor was nearly worn out 
when she was at last able to leave her. Sheer fatigue made 
Georgia sleep soundly, in spite of the excitement of the 
past day, and she and Bahah were not disturbed again that 
night. In the morning Fitz flashed an inquiry as to the 
time at which she would like to be fetched from Bir-ul- 
Malikat, and about eleven o’clock she saw the cavalcade she 
was expecting enter the courtyard. There was a hurried 
collecting together of packages, a hasty farewell to Zeynah, 
who wept copiously, and would not be comforted even by 
the promise that she should receive every picture -paper 
Georgia could lay her hands on, and then, accompanied by 


HARDLY WON. 


375 


Khadija, the visitors went down to the courtyard. To 
Georgians surprise and disappointment, it was Stratford and 
Fitz who came eagerly to meet her as she appeared at the 
door shrouded in her hurka. 

“Where is Dick? He is not ill, is he?” she asked 
anxiously of Stratford, remembering Fitz’s message of the 
night before. 

“ He is so busy that he was obliged to send his apologies, 
and allow us the honour of escorting you instead of coming 
to fetch you himself,” said Stratford, in tones which were 
absolutely devoid of any suggestion of ulterior meaning. 

“ Oh ! ” said Georgia, blankly. 

“ He found himself compelled to hold a full-dress review 
of his detachment, or inspect their kits, or do stables, or 
something complicated and professional of that kind,” said 
Fitz, with a dogged resentment aggressively conspicuous in 
his manner. 

“ Honsense, Anstruther ! You know as well as I do that 
he would have allowed nothing but absolute necessity to 
keep him from coming,” said Stratford. 

“ Oh yes, of course,” said Georgia, in the most natural 
tone she could command. She would not let it be seen 
that she perceived the flimsy character of the excuse, but 
she felt deeply mortified as she allowed Stratford to mount 
her on her horse, and she resented his evident determination 
to smooth things over almost more than Fitz’s undisguised 
incredulity. “ How horrid of Dick ! ” was what she said to 
herself as she gathered up the reins, and the hot tears rose 
to her eyes under the shadow of the hurka, 

“ Stay, Englishman ! ” cried Khadija from the doorstep, 
when Stratford, having seen Eahah and the luggage safely 
bestowed, was about to mount his own horse. “ Where is 
Yakub, my son, whom I left at Bir-ul-Malik as a pledge for 
the safe return of the doctor lady ? ” 


376 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“I hope that Yakub will come back to you safe and 
sound in a few days,” returned Stratford in Ethiopian, 
speaking so carefully that it was evident he had studied 
his sentences with Kustendjian before starting. “Eorthe 
present, however, I think it well to detain him, on my own 
responsibility. We don’t want any mistakes made about 
that medicine for the Envoy. As soon as he has recovered, 
you shall have your son back.” 

For answer, Khadija threw herself upon the ground, wail- 
ing and tearing her hair and beating her breast, and calling 
upon Heaven and upon Georgia to witness that she had per- 
formed all that was required of her, and that she had given 
her all the necessary ingredients for the medicine. Georgia, 
remembering the scene in Zeynab’s room the night before, 
and indignant at being compelled to bear a part in what 
was not far removed from a breach of faith, espoused her 
cause, and joined her in demanding that Yakub should be at 
once released. In spite, however, of all that she could say, 
Stratford remained immovable, and mounting his horse, 
ordered an immediate start. But before the horses had 
gone more than a few steps, Khadija rose from the ground, 
and forcing her way through the escort, caught hold of 
Georgia’s rein. 

“ 0 doctor lady,” she cried, with such reluctance that she 
seemed almost to be torn in two by the conflicting passions 
in her mind, “ I had forgotten one thing. After the first 
administration of the medicine, the sick man will sleep for 
two days and two nights a natural sleep. If he is awakened 
in that time he will die, but if he awakes of himself, all will 
be well. And now” — her tone changed suddenly — “now 
go thy way, 0 thrice accursed daughter of an accursed father, 
and when first thy bridegroom looks upon thy face on thy 
wedding-night, may he turn his back on thee and say, ‘ 0 
woman, I divorce thee ! ’ and so thrust thee out.” 


HAEDLY WON. 


377 


Come, that’s enough,” said Stratford peremptorily, loos- 
ening her hand from the rein. ‘‘You know now that it 
depends on yourself whether your son returns to you in 
safety or not. Has Anstruther told you. Miss Keeling, 
that we had a messenger from Jahan Beg the day before 
yesterday 1 ” 

“ Ko, I had not heard of it,” returned Georgia, following 
his example in ignoring the baffled Khadija, who stood shak- 
ing her fist and shrieking curses after the party. “ What 
news did he bring 1 ” 

“The best news possible. Jahan Beg has succeeded in 
unearthing the conspirators who were troubling him when 
we left the city, and has made it impossible for them, at 
any rate, to do more plotting. Among other things, he 
discovered that they meant to stop us and keep us here in 
order to get hold of the treaty, and therefore he sent strin- 
gent orders to Abd-ur-Kahim to let us go at once with all 
our property, on pain of death. Messengers were also sent 
to all the towns and forts on the road and along the frontier, 
ordering the governors on no account to oppose the advance 
of any English relieving force coming from Khemistan, but 
to afford it every assistance, as if they didn’t Fath-ud-Din 
would suffer. That accounts for North’s getting back to 
us so quickly.” 

“ How far had he to go 1 ” asked Georgia. 

“ Only as far as Rahmat-Ullah, for Hicks had got there 
before him, and frightened the Government about us a good 
deal, so that they had already ordered up a couple of troops 
of the Khemistan Horse, in addition to those usually stationed 
at the fort, and as soon as they arrived he started back with 
them. Of course such a small force would have been no 
use if the country had been up, but it was intended merely 
as an armed escort, just to make a dash for Bir-ul-Malik and 
back to Kahmat-Ullah.” 


378 


PEACE WITH HONOUB. 


“ Then they must have travelled very fast,” said Georgia, 
her mind reverting to her glimpse of Dick the day before. 

“Yes, they made forced marches all the way. North 
kept them at it, but he looks awfully done up now,” said 
the wily Stratford. 

“ It would have done him good to ride out here,” said 
Georgia, refusing to commit herself. 

“ Yes ; but you know how conscientious he is. So long 
as there is anything to be done, he will simply work till he 
drops.” 

“ Oh dear, I do hope he isn’t going to be ill ! ” sighed 
Georgia, and Stratford judged that his scheme had suc- 
ceeded. He guessed rightly, for all the resentment in 
Georgia’s mind was swallowed up in anxiety, and she 
could not spare a thought for her own insulted dignity 
when Dick was suffering, perhaps had even endangered 
his life, through his eagerness to rescue her. She said 
little during the remainder of the ride, and could scarcely 
devote a moment even to glancing at the camp of the 
Khemistan Horse, which was pitched beside the hill of 
Bir-ul- Malik. Arrived at the palace, she bestowed a 
hasty greeting on Kustendjian and Ismail Bakhsh, and 
hurried into the harem in search of Lady Haigh, who 
rushed to meet her, and in the intervals of kissing and 
crying over her, scolded her soundly for her persistence 
in remaining away. 

“ But I have got the antidote ! ” cried Georgia, exhibiting 
the little bottle proudly; “and remember. Lady Haigh, 
you promised that I should use it.” 

“ How could I prevent your trying it^ my dear child, when 
you risked your life in obtaining it 1 But it was not even 
your danger that I was thinking about so much at the 
moment. It was Major North, and his view of the case.” 

“Oh, Dick and I must settle our little differences to- 


HARDLY WON. 


379 


gether,” said Georgia, as lightly as she could. “ Where is 
he ? I haven’t seen him yet.” 

“I think I hear his step outside,” said Lady Haigh. 
‘‘ He must have followed you into the house. But, Georgia, 
I must warn you, he looks very seedy, and I think he is 
just a little bit cross. Don’t he harder on him than you 
can help, dear, for he has been through a fearfully anxious 
time. He has had very little sleep since he left here, and 
has been at work day and night, almost without a rest.” 

If Lady Haigh considered it advisable to offer her this 
warning, Georgia judged that Dick’s fit of ill-temper must 
be of an extremely pronounced character; but her con- 
science was clear, although her heart beat a little faster than 
usual as she left Lady Haigh in the inner room and went 
out into the larger one. Dick was leaning against the 
framework of the lattice, and raised himself slowly to 
greet her. 

“ Oh, Dick, how ill you look ! ” she cried. “ My dear 
boy, you ought to be in bed.” 

As soon as the words had passed her lips, she was struck 
by their singularly malapropos character under the circum- 
stances, and Dick frowned heavily. 

“ Well, Georgia 1 ” was all he said. 

“ Why, Dick, have you nothing more to say to me than 
that 1 Do you know that you haven’t seen me for over a 
week ? ” 

“ I was under the impression that you might have seen 
me yesterday evening, and preferred not to do so.” 

“ But I couldn’t help that. It was not a matter of 
choice. One can’t leave a patient before his cure is fairly 
complete.” 

“ You prefer your patient to me, then 1 ” 

“ To see you would have been a pleasure ; to stay there 
was a duty.” 


380 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ Even when I had desired you to come back at once 1 ” 

“ That couldn’t alter my duty.” 

‘‘Indeed?” Dick lifted his eyebrows. “Then my 
wishes have no weight with you whatever?” 

“ They have great weight with me, hut mine ought to 
have just as much with you.” 

“ This is rather a new theory,” said Dick, with elaborate 
politeness. “Is its application intended to be permanent, 
or only temporary ? ” 

“I see no reason to anticipate any change that would 
render it out of date.” 

“ Thank you. That’s pretty clear, at any rate. Perhaps 
you will kindly explain to me your views of the marriage 
relation ? So far as I can see, they involve two heads of 
one house.” 

“I don’t want to discuss the question now, especially 
since we used to argue it so often in the old days,” said 
Georgia ; “ but if you insist upon it, I will. I know very 
well that there can be only one head, practically speaking, to 
a household — that when two people ride one horse, one must 
ride behind — and because I love you and trust you, I am 
quite willing to take the second place. But I do expect to 
be consulted as to the way the horse is to go. You could 
never have imagined that I would allow myself to be carried 
off anywhere blindfold. I think that we should discuss 
everything together and agree upon our course, and if at 
any time circumstances should prevent our discussing some 
special plan, I expect you to trust me if I find it necessary 
to act on my own responsibility, just as I should be ready to 
trust you in a like case.” 

“ This is the Hew Woman’s idea of marriage ! ” sneered 
Dick. 

“ It is my view of it, at any rate. Did you expect to find 
in me a slave without any will of her own, Dick ? I am not 


HARDLY WON. 


381 


a young girl, but a woman, who has led a sufficiently lonely 
and independent life, and you knew that when you asked 
me to marry you.” 

“ Yes, and I was a fool to do it,” said Dick, roughly. 

Georgia turned away, deeply wounded, and he stood at 
the lattice, looking out over the desert with gloomy eyes. 
She did not know that more had happened to try his 
temper than even the hardships and anxiety of which Lady 
Haigh had spoken. An ill-advised comrade, who had heard 
of his engagement through Mr Hicks, had seen fit to chaff 
him that morning on the eagerness with' which he had 
pressed forward to rescue a lady who neither wanted his 
help nor desired his presence, and the words had rankled in 
his mind. But although Georgia was ignorant of this fact, 
she could not consent to leave things in their present state. 
To take offence at his hasty speech, and break off her 
engagement there and then, would be a course of conduct 
worthy only of a mythical lady who always acted the part 
of an awful warning for Georgia and her friends, and whom 
they were in the habit of calling “The Early Victorian 
Female.” It is, perhaps, needless to add that this person 
was given to gushing over indifferent poetry, fainted with 
great regularity at the most inconvenient moments, and 
when she had a misunderstanding with her lover, accepted 
the fact meekly, and pined away and died. Georgia felt it 
morally impossible to imitate her. To what purpose had 
been her own education and her experience of life if they 
did not enable her to stoop to conquer, and to hold her own 
without being aggressive ? Was all that had passed between 
herself and Dick to be blotted out by a few words spoken 
in a moment of irritation 1 She crossed the room to his side 
and put her hands on his shoulders. 

“ Look at me, Dick,” she said. But Dick would not turn 
round. 


382 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“You goail a man into saying beastly things to you,” he 
muttered, “ and then you try and get round him when he is 
feeling ashamed of himself.” 

Such an unpromising reception of her effort to make 
peace might well have daunted Georgia, but she could 
forgive much to Dick, simply because he was Dick. She 
turned his moody face towards hers and made him look 
at her. 

“ Don’t think of it any more, Dick,” she said. “ My 
dear boy, do you imagine I don’t care for you enough to 
forgive you that? And let us leave the question of our 
married life to right itself. If it hadn’t been for this, we 
should have glided into it naturally, and things would have 
settled themselves. Surely two people who are neither of 
them by nature quarrelsome, and who are anxious to do 
right, ought to be able to get on together, if both are willing 
to give and take 1 I can trust you, Dick ; won’t you trust 
mel” 

It added considerably to the discomfort of Dick’s present 
state of mind that he was conscious that Georgia was 
behaving with a magnanimity to which he could lay no 
claim, but he had started with the determination to put his 
foot down, and to show Georgia before they were married 
that he would stand no nonsense, and he stuck to his point 
doggedly. “ I don’t intend to be made to look a fool before 
all the world,” he growled. 

“ But who would want to make you look a fool 1 You 
must know that your honour is as dear to me as to yourself. 
Haven’t I shown that I won’t keep you back when duty 
calls you 1 Can’t you trust me, Dick ? If you can’t, things 
had better be over between us, indeed. Suppose you were 
out, and I was summoned to a dangerous case, and couldn’t 
possibly let you know. It would be my duty to go, just as 
it would be yours to start if you were ordered somewhere on 


HAKDLY WON. 


383 


special service, and couldn^t even say good-bye to me. Can’t 
we act on this understanding ] ” 

“ But how can you be sure that you can trust me, may I 
ask ? Many men make rash promises before marriage, and 
break them like a shot afterwards. How do you know that 
I am not one of them 1 ” 

“ Oh, not you, Dick ! You are a gentleman ; I can trust 
you fully. Tell me that you will agree, and let us forget 
all this worry.” 

“ You are trying to get round me,” said Dick again, help- 
lessly. “ I can’t think what I was going to say ; everything 
seems to have gone out of my head. What is the matter 1 ” 
looking irritably at her frightened face. “ There’s nothing 
wrong with me. I think — things had better be — over 
between us, Georgie. We should never — agree. What 
was I saying last ^ What’s the matter with the walls 1 Is 
it — an earthquake ? ” 

He was reeling as he stood, and clutching wildly at the 
frame of the lattice for support. Georgia caught him by 
the arm, for he had missed his hold and was swaying back- 
wards and forwards, and succeeded in guiding him to the 
divan. 

“I feel — awfully queer,” he said, and fainted away 
before Georgia could seek a restorative. She cried out, 
and Lady Haigh and Eahah came rushing in, the latter 
followed by Dick’s bearer, whose countenance declared 
plainly that he considered his master’s illness to be entirely 
due to Georgia, and that it was just what he had expected. 
With the help of some of the other servants, Dick was 
carried to his own room, where for several days he was 
to lie moaning and tossing under a bad attack of fever. 
Georgia had her hands full during this period, even though 
the bearer declined respectfully to allow her any share in 
the actual nursing, for besides her care for Dick, she was 


384 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


engaged in testing, with scarcely less anxiety, the effect 
upon Sir Dugald’s health of the antidote she had obtained 
with so much difficulty. She would have preferred to 
choose a time when she could give her whole attention to 
his case, hut he had appeared so much weaker of late that 
Lady Haigh was feverishly eager for the remedy to be tried 
at once, and in fear and trembling Georgia put into practice 
the directions she had received from Khadija. Her courage 
revived to a certain extent when she found that the result- 
ing symptoms corresponded exactly with those described by 
the old woman, but the two days of heavy slumber proved 
to be a period of intense anxiety. Every sound was 
hushed in the neighbourhood of Sir Dugald’s sick-room, 
and the watchers scarcely dared to move or breathe. At 
last, just as Georgia had returned to her other patient after 
a heart-breaking visit to Dick, who was calling on her con- 
stantly, although he refused to recognise her when she stood 
beside him, there was a sudden movement on the part of 
Sir Dugald, and Lady Haigh grasped her arm convulsively. 

“ Go to him, and let him see you first when he wakes,” 
said Georgia, in a low whisper, and Lady Haigh obeyed. 

“Well, Elma!” It was Sir Dugald’s voice, very weak, 
but without a hint of delirium. “ Haven’t you got the place 
rather dark ? ” 

Georgia threw the lattice partly open, and he looked 
round. 

“ Still at Kubbet-ul-Haj, I see.” They had purposely 
arranged the bed and the camp-furniture in the same posi- 
tions that they had occupied hi his room at the Mission, 
with the object of avoiding a sudden shock. “I should 
have said we must have left it long ago, but I have had the 
most extraordinary dreams. Could it have been a touch of 
fever, do you think But is that Miss Keeling 1 Ah, this 
explains it. I must have been ill? ” 


HAEDLY WON. 


385 


“ Yes, you have frightened us all very much, Sir Dugald,” 
said Georgia, for Lady Haigh was incapable of speech. 

Ah, it was a bad attack, then, was it 1 Queer that I 
don’t remember feeling it coming on. The treaty is not 
signed yet, I suppose!” 

“Yes, it is signed. You have been ill for some time — 
longer than you think.” 

“ I always knew that Stratford was a clever fellow. This 
is the best news you could have brought me. Miss Keeling. 
But we ought to be thinking of returning to Khemistan if 
we have secured the treaty. How long do you give me to 
get well enough to mount a horse again ! ” 

“You mustn’t be in too great a hurry. We might carry 
you in a litter.” 

“ Ho, thank you. It would be too much like my dreams. 
I have suffered agonies through imagining that I was in a 
trance, and about to be buried alive, because they thought 
I was dead. It seemed to me that I could see people 
moving about all round me, but I could not move, or 
speak, or feel. Then I was put in a coffin, and carried off 
to be buried. It always ended there, but it came over and 
over again. It was the horrible helplessness — my absolute 
powerlessness to make any sign to show that I was alive — 
which was the worst thing about it.” 

“Oh, Dugald!” cried Lady Haigh, in a strangled voice 
— and kissing him hastily, she hurried out of the room. 

“ Lady Haigh has been very much frightened about you. 
Sir Dugald,” said Georgia. “ She has watched over you 
night and day, and I have often wondered that she did not 
break down.” 

“ Please look after her,” he said, anxiously. “ She has 
wonderful pluck, but sometimes she is obliged to give way 
altogether, and I’m afraid from what you say that she must 
be quite overdone.” 

2 B 


386 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Georgia left the room, and found Lady Haigh sobbing 
on the divan outside, with her face buried in a cushion that 
Sir Dugald might not hear her. Sitting down beside her, 
Georgia began to cry too, out of pure sympathy, until Lady 
Haigh suddenly choked back her sobs, and throwing her 
arms round her, cried — 

“Oh, Georgie, Georgie, you have given me back my 
husband, and it has cost you Major North ! ” 

“ You mustn’t think of that. There ought to be a change 
in Dick’s state before long.” 

“ Georgie, I will nurse him night and day — every moment 
that I can spare from Sir Dugald, that is. And if I can’t 
put things right between you when he is better. I’ll — 
I’U 

“ But what if he doesn’t want things put right 1 ” asked 
Georgia, sadly. 

• ••••• 

When Dick recovered consciousness, after a very long and 
fatiguing dream, in which many people and events had 
played more or less inappropriate parts, he found himself 
in bed with a cold bandage on his forehead, and a feeling 
all over him that he had lost more strength than he had 
ever possessed. There was some one in the room, and he 
gathered that it was Lady Haigh. She was speaking to 
some one else at the door. 

“ I will leave him to you, then, Georgie. He is beauti- 
fully asleep still, and I have just changed the bandage.” 

The door closed softly, and Dick was aware that Lady 
Haigh had gone out and that the other person had corofe 
in, and was sitting just out of his sight as he lay in bed. 
That was not what he wanted, and he tried painfully to turn 
his head in her direction. She was at his side in a moment. 

“Are you tired of lying in that position 1” she asked. 
“Shall I help vou to turn over*?” 


HARDLY WON. 


387 


“ Not if you will sit where I can see you,” he answered, 
and his voice sounded to himself weak and far-away. 
Georgia changed her place as he wished, but she took up 
the book she had been reading and went on with it. 

“Why won’t you speak to me, Georgie?” he asked, 
querulously. 

“ Because you are forbidden to talk until you are a little 
stronger.” 

“ I don’t care ! Put down that book and sit nearer me.” 

“No,” said Georgia, with decision. “You are not to 
excite yourself with talking. Lie still, and try to go to 
sleep.” 

“Why do you talk to me like that? I haven’t done 
anything to make you angry with me, have I ? Why are 
you so unkind?” 

“ I don’t want to be unkind,” returned Georgia, hastily ; 
“but you really ought not to talk. I will answer any 
number of questions when you are better.” 

“ But why won’t you call me Dick ? We didn’t quarrel, 
did we ? I have a sort of idea But my head was aw- 

fully queer, and I daresay I talked a lot of rot. I can’t apol- 
ogise properly until I remember more about it. But if we 
quarrelled, why are you here looking after me like this 1 ” 

“ Simply and solely as your medical adviser.” There was 
the slightest possible suspicion of triumph in Georgia’s tone, 
the reason for which Dick did not perceive until afterwards. 
She returned to her book, and he lay and looked at her in 
a puzzled kind of way. 

“I wish you would take my temperature,” he said at 
last. 

“ What, are you feverish again ? ” she asked anxiously, 
getting out her thermometer as she rose and came towards 
him. 

“ I don’t know ; but I remember you were doing it once 


388 


PEACE WITH HONOUB. 


when I was just about half awake, and I liked it You 
put your arm under my head.” 

“ If you will talk so much, I shall call Lady Haigh.” 

“But do take my temperature! I thought sick people 
always had everything they wanted.” 

“Everything in reason. Patients are expected not to 
trouble their doctors unnecessarily. How try to go to 
sleep.” And Georgia returned the thermometer resolutely 
to its case. 

“Would it be considered a thing in reason if a patient 
asked his doctor to give him a kissi What would the 
doctor say?” 

“That anything of the kind would be highly impro- 
fessional.” 

“Well, this patient,” said Dick, weakly, “refuses to try 
to go to sleep unless his doctor acts in that unprofessional 
way.” 

And his doctor did. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

VIS MBDIOATRIX. 

“Georgia,” said Lady Haigh, some two or three days 
later, “ I want to ask you a question. Are you still engaged 
to Major Horth, or not?” 

The shadow of a smile glimmered on Georgians lips. 

“ It seems a ridiculous thing to say, but really I haven^t 
the smallest idea whether I am or not,” she answered. 

“ But what does Major Horth think about it ? ” 

“I believe he is under the impression that we are still 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


389 


engaged. That is what makes the matter doubtful, for I 
should certainly say that we were not.” 

“But how long is this state of things to go onl” — 
impatiently. * 

“ I don’t know. Happily I have never had an engage- 
ment-ring, so that no one can notice any difference.” 

“ My dear, this must he put a stop to ! ” said Lady Haigh, 
with conviction. “Now that Major North is so much 
better, there is no need for you to pretend that two doctor’s 
visits a-day are necessary. Once a-day is quite enough for 
the present, and then you can drop it altogether.” 

“ Oh, Lady Haigh I But he looks out for me so eagerly, 
and is so glad to see me. And I like to see him too.” 

“ You mustn’t make yourself too cheap, my dear Georgia. 
Surely you would not wish to cling to a man who has told 
you in so many words that he is anxious to break off his 
engagement to you?” 

“ Oh, but I don’t think he meant it.” 

“ Then he has nothing to do but to say so. You had far 
better bring about an explanation, and have it over. It is 
certainly Major North’s turn to eat humble pie, and it will 
do him a world of good, and smooth your path very much 
in the future. Take my advice, dear, and let him see (or at 
any rate think) that you are prepared to abide by what he 
said.” 

It was with great reluctance that Georgia consented to 
follow her friend’s counsel; but when she thought it over 
its wisdom commended itself to her, and she decided to 
carry it out rigorously, with results which seemed very hard 
to Dick. He only saw his doctor once a-day, and then she 
persisted in ignoring sternly all his attempts to extend the 
scope of the conversation beyond the business in hand. 
Then she discontinued her visits altogether, and the only 
explanation his bearer could offer was that the Doctor Miss 


390 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Sahiba was very busy, and be supposed tliat sbe took no 
more interest in tbe protector of tbe poor now that be was 
so much better. It was tbe same when Stratford and Fitz 
caine to see bim. They agreed that Miss Keeling was very 
busy, and seemed ratber surprised tbat be should ask after 
ber. It even appeared to bim tbat there was a slight 
constraint in their tones when they answered bis questions. 
Dick pondered over tbe mystery without any satisfactory 
result for two days, and then announced tbat he was going 
to get up, and demanded bis clothes. The bearer bad 
anticipated this step, and replied promptly tbat the entire 
wardrobe of the protector of tbe poor was at tbe moment in 
tbe hands of a tailor in the town, to whom he bad intrusted 
it for needed repairs, and who preferred to execute them on 
his own premises. Hari Das invited bis master’s reproofs 
for bis own remissness in postponing the operation for so 
long, but to bis dismay discovered that Dick declined to be 
drawn into a tirade on tbe vices of bearers in general, 
illustrated from bis experience of this particular specimen. 
He was too much in earnest in bis determination to have 
time to waste in useless altercations, and, moreover, he knew 
bis man. 

“ Ask tbe chota sahib to come to me,” he said. “ I will 
borrow a suit of his clothes.” 

Tbe bearer looked blank. 

“ But the chota sahiVs clothes will not fit my lord,” he 
objected. 

“ Tbat doesn’t signify,” said Dick. “ Fit or no fit, I am 
going to get up,” and he only smiled in secret when the 
bearer returned after a short absence with one of his own 
suits, and announced that tbe tailor had brought it back 
unexpectedly soon. He found himself much weaker than 
he had anticipated as he dressed, but he disregarded the 
bearer’s doleful assurances tbat he would kill himself, and 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


391 


declined to return to his couch, although he was glad to 
accept the support of the servant’s arm as he crossed the 
hall and entered the passage leading into the harem. Lady 
Haigh, writing her home letters busily at a camp-table (for 
letter-writing had been dropped by common, though unex- 
pressed consent, during those past days, when it seemed 
unlikely that either the letters or their writers would ever 
reach home), looked up in astonishment when he came in, 
and made haste to arrange a comfortable place for him with 
cushions upon the divan, remarking that he had better lie 
still and rest for a little and not talk. But this was not 
what Dick had come for. 

“ Lady Haigh, where is Georgie 1 ” he asked, the moment 
after the bearer had departed. 

Well, I think she is busy just now,” Lady Haigh re- 
plied, with distinct coldness in her manner. As a matter 
of fact, at that moment Georgia was sitting outside on the 
terrace with Sir Dugald, who had by this time been pro- 
moted to a knowledge of the whereabouts of his party, 
and was entertaining him with an account of her visit to 
Bir-ul-Malikat and of the charms of Khadija. 

“ Every person that I have asked about her for the last 
three days has told me exactly that ! ” said Dick, with a 
good deal of indignation in his tone. “ I should like to see 
her, if you please,” he went on, in the voice of one deter- 
mined to obtain his just rights. 

“ I assure you that I have not got her locked up,” said 
Lady Haigh, with some tartness. “I will tell her what 
you say, if you like, but I must say that after all that has 
happened ” 

“What is the object of tormenting me like this, Lady 
Haigh asked Dick impatiently, raising himself on his 
elbow. “ I know that Georgia must be ill — I suppose she 
fell ill through overtiring herself in nursing me — and you 


392 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


are all doing your best to keep it from me. I insist on 
knowing what is the matter with her, and how she is get- 
ting on. I have a right to know.” 

Indeed 1 ” said Lady Haigh, “ I was not aware of that. 
But you are mistaken in supposing that Miss Keeling is ill. 
I am glad to say she is quite well.” 

“ Then what is the matter ? Why are you keeping her 
away from me like this 1 What has come between us 1 ” 

“ Keally, Major North, you are a little inconsistent. Why 
you should accuse me of trying to separate Miss Keeling 
and yourself, I don^t know. I can only suppose that your 
illness has caused you to forget the trifling fact that your 
engagement is broken off.” 

Dick stared at her in astonishment and dismay. 

“ I don’t remember,” he murmured. “ Some one said 
something about a quarrel, but it was nothing after all. 
When did she do itl What had I done?” 

“ Pray don’t try to put it upon Miss Keeling. You told 
her yourself that things had better be over between you.” 

“I must have been mad,” said Dick despairingly, ^‘or 
am I dreaming now 1 He pinched his arm to assure him- 
self that he was awake, then looked round the room in a 
vain search for explanation, until his gaze rested again on 
Lady Haigh, but he found no comfort in her face. “ You 
wouldn’t humbug me on such a subject. Lady Haigh ! ” 
he cried, as he met her accusing glance. “You helped me 
once before; tell me what to do now. She can’t think 
I really meant it!” 

“So far as I know, you explained your views pretty 
clearly,” said Lady Haigh, rejoicing to find Dick delivered 
into her hands in this teachable spirit, and hoping devoutly 
that Georgia would remain outside and out of hearing. 
“You mustn’t play fast and loose like this. Major North. 
Why did you say what you didn’t mean?” 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


393 


**I don^t know — I must have been angry. I have a 
beastly temper at times, you know. I suppose Georgia had 
made me very mad about something. Oh yes, I remember 
now, it was about her going to Bir-ul-Malikat. She would 
insist that she had a right to go, and stay too, whether I 
liked it or not, and she wouldn’t give in. But as for break- 
ing off our engagement ” 

“But you are convinced that Miss Keeling ought to have 
given in ? ” 

“Well, I think that when she saw what a point I made 
of it ’’ 

“There was no question of your giving in because she 
also made a point of it 1 ” 

“ Oh no,” said Dick, innocently. 

“ Then I think it is a very good thing indeed that your 
engagement is broken off.” Lady Haigh spoke with her 
usual decision of manner, but Dick looked so absolutely 
astonished and appalled that she condescended to an ex- 
planation. “I should like to talk to you a little on this 
subject very seriously, Major North, for as a looker-on I can 
perhaps see more clearly than you do where you have gone 
wrong. I daresay you will regard me as a meddling old 
woman, but at any rate you can’t say that I have turned 
critic because I have failed in matrimony, for my married 
life has been as happy as even I could have wished. Be- 
sides, it was in getting the medicine to cure Sir Dugald 
that poor Georgia incurred your royal highness’s displeasure, 
so that I feel bound to do all I can to put things right 
between you.” 

“But if you think that it is better for her not to be 
engaged to me 1 ” The question was asked a little stiffly, 
for Dick did not altogether appreciate the tone of his moni- 
tress’s remarks. 

“That is a matter which depends solely on yourseli 


394 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


You possess many estimable qualities, Major North, but you 
were bom a few centuries too late. Of course I don^t mean 
that you were to blame for the fact — on the contrary, it is 
distinctly a misfortune, both to yourself and others. You 
would have made an ideal husband in the days when it 
was considered quite the proper thing for a gentleman to 
correct his wife with a stick not thicker than his middle 
finger.” 

“Eeally, Lady Haigh, this is beyond a joke!” Dick 
was angry now — there was no mistaking the fact. 

“ Quite so ; but I am not joking. I don^t mean that if 
you married Georgia, you would keep her in order with a 
horsewhip — I don’t for a moment believe she would let you, 
for one thing. But I think you would certainly need some 
resource of the kind to fall back upon if your ideal of 
domestic discipline was to be maintained. In your house, 
according to your theory, there would be one law and one 
will, and that law would be your law, and that will your 
will. That is a beautiful ideal — for you — and it would no 
doubt produce, in course of time, a saintly submissiveness 
of character in your wife. But any woman who is to be 
subjected to such a course of training ought to be warned 
beforehand, and agree to accept it with her eyes open. 
And that Georgia would never do.” 

“I don’t know why she shouldn’t. All women do.” 

“Do theyl” asked Lady Haigh, with as little sarcasm 
in her tone as the subject admitted — and Dick was silent, 
recognising that he had, to use his own phrase, given him- 
self away. His counsellor went on, “I am going to as''^ 
you a personal question. Major North. Why do you wanw 
to marry Miss Keeling *? ” 

“ Because I love her, and I can’t do without her,” very 
gmffly. 

“But why didn’t you fall in love with that beautiful 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


395 


Miss Hervey, whom we met at Mrs Egerton’s before we 
came out here?” 

“ Because she is not my sort — an empty-headed doll ! ” 

“ Exactly ; but if you want a woman without any mind 
or reason of her own, she would just suit you. She would 
adore you, and defer to all your wishes when they didn’t 
clash with any particular fancies of her own, for six months 
at least, and you would adore her for the same length of 
time — until you each found the other out. After that, you 
would know that you had married a fool, and she a tyrant. 
Georgia is not a fooL She loves you, but she sees your 
faults, and she has a certain amount of self-respect. If you 
wanted her to do anything that seemed to her unreasonable, 
she would talk it over with you, and she might end by 
refusing to do it, but she would never cry or sulk imtil you 
gave it up in despair. It is a great thing to recognise fully 
that you are both human beings, after alL Georgie doesn’t 
imagine that the possession of the Victoria Cross necessarily 
implies that of all the domestic virtues, any more than she 
believes herself to be perfect because she possesses a London 
medical degree. She would consider that she had exactly 
as much right to be the sole arbiter of the house as you had, 
and that is none at all” 

Dick murmured a feeble protest against this way of look- 
ing at things, to which Lady Haigh refused to listen. 

** The fact is, you would wish to marry a clever woman, 
only she must be willing to let herself be treated like a fool. 
You can’t reconcile two extremes in that way. Georgia has 
lived her own life, and that a very full and useful one, and 
you cannot expect her to become a puppet all at once, simply 
out of love for you. She is used to acting on her own 
initiative. Well, I will tell you what I learned from her 
maid, for she won’t talk about it herself. Do you know 
that when she was at Bir-ul-Malikat, that wicked old woman 


396 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


Khadija tried to get her to lead you and your men into 
a trap, on the pretence that by calling to you and beckoning 
you she would warn you of an ambuscade. An ordinary 
woman would have yielded to the impulse of the moment — 
I should have myself — and destroyed you, with the purest 
desire for your safety; but Georgie had the strength of mind 
to reason the matter out, all in an instant. She refused to 
call to you, and you were saved. And it is a woman like 
that whom you expect to fall down and worship your slight- 
est whim ! ” with intense scorn. 

“Not guilty, Lady Haigh. I abjure, I recant — anything! 
But why didn’t you tell me this before 1 What an ungrate- 
ful brute she must think me ! ” 

“ I didn^t begin by telling you of it, because I wanted to 
make you see reason, instead of working upon your feelings. 
Tm sure I hope I may have done both.” 

“ I will give you my solemn promise, if that will satisfy 
you, that Georgia shall ride roughshod over my most cher- 
ished convictions as often as she likes. She is a heroine. 
I feel ashamed to lift my eyes to her. Oh, Lady Haigh, 
tell me what to do. How can I begin to make things 
right 

“Put yourself in her place. Would you like it if she 
expected you to give up your military career for her sake 1 ” 
“ She would never ask or expect such a thing. She knows 
that I could not do it, even to please her.” 

“ Then return the compliment. She is w illin g to give up 
for your sake any hope of distinguishing herself further in 
her profession by means of original research, but she will 
not relinquish the practice of it. Allow her the freedom 
you claim for yourself — in fact you must allow it, if you 
mean to marry Georgia Keeling. She will be yours heart 
and soul, but a certain portion of her time and interest she 
will always give to her work.” 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


397 


“ But come now, Lady Haigh, doesn’t tnat strike you as 
slightly rough on a man ? ” 

“It strikes me as merely just,” snapped Lady Haigh. 
“ No portion of your time and interest will ever he given to 
your work, of course 1 ” 

“ Oh, hut that’s different, you know,” said Dick, uncom- 
fortably. “Do you really think that this sort of thing 
is meant for women?” 

“My dear Major North, I am not holding a brief for 
Women’s Eights. I am merely trying to bring you into 
line with facts. If you want arguments, no doubt Georgia 
will argue with you by the hour.” 

“ I wish she was here to do it ! ” sighed Dick. “ Would 
it be rude to remind you, Lady Haigh, that I haven’t seen 
her for three whole days ? ” 

“ I suppose that means that you want me to fetch her 
for yoiL Well, I will just say this. Once you lamented 
to me that you had no tact. Now I believe that, until she 
finds him out, a bad man with tact will make a woman 
happier than a good man without it.” Lady Haigh paused 
triumphantly, as though to say, “ Contradict that atrocious 
sentiment if you can ! ” but Dick made no attempt to do so, 
and she went on. “ I’m afraid you would find it difficult 
to cultivate tact now, but if you will only try to consider 
things that affect Georgia from her point of view as well as 
your own, you will have made a good beginning.” 

She stepped out through the lattice, and presently (Jeoigia 
entered, stethoscope in hand. 

“ Well, and how do we find ourselves to-day ? ” she asked 
cheerfully, hoping that Dick would not notice the trembling 
in her voice. 

“ How can you expect a patient to get better when his 
doctor does not come near him for days?” 

“You have always expressed such a dislike to lady 


398 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


doctors, that it struck us you might prefer to he without 
one.” 

“ Ah, how did you come to be my doctor, by the bye 1 ” 

“ I knew you would have preferred the surgeon who came 
with you,” said Georgia, with resignation in her tones. ‘‘ I 
will tell you how it was. He is very young and very new, 
and knows nothing about fever in practice, which makes 
him all the more sure about it in theory. He has half-a- 
dozen infallible remedies, and he was rejoicing at the pros- 
pect of being able to test them all on you, when I stepped 
in and claimed you as my patient. And now I suppose you 
will tell me that you would prefer to be killed by him rather 
than be cured by me ? ” 

Ho suitable repartee occurring to Dick at the moment, he 
took a mean advantage of his position as an invalid, and lay 
back on his cushions with a slight groan, which melted 
Georgians heart at once. 

“You have a headache, and I have been teasing you!” 
she said, remorsefully, changing her position and coming 
behind him. “ Keep your head like that, my poor boy,” 
and she began to pass her fingers slowly across his forehead 
with such a soothing effect that Dick only kept himself by 
a violent effort from falling asleep. Pulling her hands down, 
he looked at them critically. 

“Have you been taking lessons in witchcraft from 
Eihadija?” he asked. “Do you think it’s fair to practice 
magic arts on mel What chance has a man when you 
begin to mesmerise him with those cool, firm fingers of 
yours 1 What nice soft hands you have, Georgie 1 ” em- 
phasising the remark by lifting the said hands to his lips. 

“ One has to keep one’s hands nice for surgical work,” 
said Georgia, apologetically, and expecting an outburst. 
But Dick only gave a rather ostentatious sigh, and went 
on meditatively. 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


399 


“Your magic is thoroughly successful, at any rate. Lady 
Haigh will testify to the change in my demeanour since you 
came in. 'Well, Georgie, you have won. Let’s make it up. 
I surrender at discretion.” 

“I begin to think that you are delirious again,” said 
Georgia, in a puzzled voice, bending forward to look at 
him. 

“ I think not. I am merely anxious not to do things by 
halves. Come, impose your conditions on me while I am 
in this softened state. As an honourable man, I shall feel 
hound to carry them out when I return to my right mind. 
I will only ask you, as you are strong, to he merciful. 
There, could submission go further than thatl” 

“You are certainly not fit to be sitting up. I shall call 
your hearer, and request him to see you hack to bed. You 
may not be delirious, hut you are undoubtedly queer in the 
head.” 

“Thank you. You will not call the respectable Hari 
Das at present — at any rate until I have had a longer talk 
with you.” 

“ That sounds more like your usual self,” said Georgia. 

“The self which is to vanish from henceforth. Oh, 
Georgie, I know I’m talking like a lunatic, but it’s because 
I should make a fool of myself if I didn’t. When I think 
of what Lady Haigh has just been telling me, of the way 
in which you saved all our lives the other day, I feel as 
though I could simply die of shame. How could you — 
how could you — do it?” 

“ Pure selfishness,” returned Georgia, with elaborate com- 
posure. “ I couldn’t do without you, you see.” 

“I’m not worth it, Georgie. I couldn’t even behave 
decently to you an hour after it happened. And I daren’t 
make any promises for the future, remembering all those 
I have broken already. But I do ask you to believe that 


400 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


I didn’t know what I was saying when — when I talked 
about breaking off our engagement the morning you came 
back. I couldn’t have believed that even when* I was off 
my head I could be such an idiot ; but, unfortunately, you 
heard me say it. Take me on again, dearest. You’ll have 

a lot to put up with, but ” 

“ My dear boy, I have never given you up — of my own 
free will, at any rate.” 

“ That doesn’t make it any better for me. After you had 
done a thing that not one woman in a million — or one man 

either — could have done ” 

“Oh yes, they could, if the idea had struck them. It 
was just that — a sudden inspiration. But you are getting 
excited, Dick, and I will not have it. As your medical 
attendant, I forbid you to think about Bir-ul-Malikat any 
more. I shall break off our re-engagement at once if you 
don’t talk about something else.” 

“ Yes, there it is. You have such an awful pull over me, 
Georgie. I can’t do without you, but you could get on very 
well without me. Confess now — couldn’t you ) ” 

“By going back to England and joining the Forward 
Club, and impressing on the world that the grapes were 
sour 1 ” asked Georgia. “ Ho, I should have to keep to my 
old plan, and settle down to missionary work in Khemistan; 
then I should get a glimpse of you sometimes.” 

“I don’t know whether you call that a pure motive? 
Yes, I think I see myself riding past a Zenana hospital 
every day, and about once a- week catching a distant view 
of you teaching a lot of native girls to roll up bandages.” 

“ And I can imagine myself rushing to the verandah to 
look after you when you had passed,” said Georgia. “ It 
would be a modern version of Boland and his lady.” 

“It would be far worse than never seeing one another 
at all.” 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


401 


“ Oh no, Dick — not worse, much better than that.” 

** It would be much worse to me. I should have to look 
out for an appointment somewhere at the other end of the 
Empire.” 

“ Dick, how unkind of you to say such a thing I ” There 
were tears very near to falling in Georgia’s eyes, but with 
an extraordinary access of tact Dick pretended not to notice 
them, and looked up at her with a friendly smile. 

“ Yes, I know I’m a brute. I warn you not to have me, 
Georgie. I have had a good fright just now, and I’m 
properly subdued for the moment, but I am bound to break 
out again. It isn’t safe, is it 1 ” 

“ I don’t care whether it is safe or not,” and she stooped 
and kissed him. 

“ Does that mean that there is to be no more doctoring 1 ” 
“ Not at all. Did you think you were going to catch me 
off my guard in a moment of weakness 1 It means that you 
agree to my doing what medical work I can, and that I 
won’t let it come between you and me.” 

“ That first part is what one might call a cool assumption, 
but I told you to make your own conditions, and as I said 
before, I am prepared to accept them abjectly. Do you 
know, Georgie, that when I was at Eahmat-XJllah it was 
hinted to me that I might be made assistant political agent 
when they establish the agency at Iskandarbagh 1 How 
would you like that?” 

“ Dick, it’s too good to be true ! It is like a dream. To 
have you, and my work, and to be able to reach not only 
Khemistan but my dear Ethiopian women ! ” 

“ How do you propose to employ yourself, then ? ” 

“In doctoring the women and children, and teaching 
where I am allowed.” 

“ And leaving your house to take care of itself ? ” 

“Yes, of course, and my husband toa 
2 C 


402 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


such a good example to the Ethiopian women, wouldn’t 
it?” 

** Oh, well, if I am only to be regarded in the light of an 
object-lesson — — ” 

“You will accept the position with resignation, and be 
thankful Oh, Dick, don’t let us tease one another any 
more ! Can’t you understand that I am glad and proud to 
have the chance of helping you a little in your work 1 It 
was my father’s work too, you know.” 

“ Yes, I know. You might come a little closer, Georgie. 
You don’t seem to imderstand yet that I make my doctor 
pay for the privilege of attending me.” 

“Come, Mr Stratford, you mustn’t tire Sir Dugald. I 
am sure he has done quite enough work this morning.” 

Stratford looked at Lady Haigh rather guiltily, almost as 
though he felt that he ought to tell her something, but 
could not make up his mind to do it 

“ I didn’t want him to go on so long, Lady Haigh, but 
he insisted on looking through the joumaL Of course he 
wanted to be posted up in everything before we start to- 
morrow, in view of reaching Eahmat-UUah so soon. I’m 
afraid you will find that — ^that he has been doing a little 
too much.” 

Lady Haigh went into the room with a scolding on her 
lips, but it died away when her eyes fell upon Sir Dugald, 
sitting at the table with his head leaning on his hand. As 
she entered, he pushed aside wearily the papers before him 
and turned to her. 

“ It’s no use, Elma ; I am done for — a worn-out, useless 
wreck. I always hoped to die in harness, but now I am 
laid on the shelf. It is all right until I get to business, but 
I cannot grasp things. My brain refuses to work.” 

This confirmation of fears which had already occurred to 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


403 


herself and Georgia struck a chill to Lady Haigh’s heart, 
hut she dared not hold out any hope of improvement by 
way of comfort. She came forward silently, and standing 
at her husband’s side, laid her hand rather timidly on his 
shoulder. 

“ It’s all up, Elma,” he said again. The very ad valo- 
rem duties in the treaty — over which I spent so much time 
before I was ill — stiunp me now. We lose everything — 
position, occupation, influence, even reputation.” 

“You have nothing left but your poor old wife,” she 
said, stifling a sob. 

“ I don’t count yon,” he said, with something of his old 
manner; “you are part of myself. We have gone through 
everything together, Elma.” 

Lady Haigh murmured something about going home to 
Scotland and ending their days together, but she left the 
sentence unfinished. How she managed to get out of the 
room without absolutely breaking down she did not know, 
but Georgia found her a short time later dissolved in 
tears. 

“He never spoke to me like that before,” she sobbed. 
“We have never been a sentimental couple — not even when 
we were first married. He couldn’t bear that sort of thing ; 
and though I might have liked a little — just a little — more 
expression, don’t you know f I was not going to worry him. 
We were good comrades always, and I think I can say that 
I never stood in his way when he was ordered to do any- 
thing. He would come to me in the morning and say, 
^ Elma, I am ordered to such and such a place,’ a thousand 
miles off, perhaps — and I would say, ‘ Very well, dear ; what 
time must I be ready 1 or will it do if we start to-morrow 1 ’ 
He never said anything, but I knew he liked it, and he was 
as proud as I was that I could shift quarters as quickly as 
any soldier of them all. And we have always been to- 


404 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


gether, as he says, and now he must give up work at 
last 1” 

“ But you have your place in Scotland, Lady Haigh, and 
Sir Dugald will find plenty to do there, and be very happy. 
It would not surprise me if he recovered entirely when he 
had no official work to worry him.” 

“ But that very official work has been the mainspring of 
his life. He will be lost without it And how will things 
go on without him 1 To escape so many dangers and re- 
cover from that poisoning just for thisl Ho, Georgia, 
don^t try to show me the bright side of it yet. Let me 
have my cry out now, and, God helping me, I’ll say no 
more about it, and he shan’t know. I won’t fail him after 
all just when he needs me most” 

“Dick,” said Georgia that evening when they met 
before dinner, “who is the bravest woman you knowl” 

“ You,” he replied, promptly. 

“Don’t be absurd; I wasn’t fishing for compliments. 
I should be satisfied if I were half as brave as Lady Haigh. 
I think that she and Sir Dugald are just worthy of one 
another.” 

“ I suppose there’s a concealed snub somewhere in that 
remark intended for me, but I can’t quite locate it yet. 
I have a good mind to ask Stratford to find it out for me 
— I always want to apply to him for an explanation when 
your reproofs are couched in too learned language — but he 
isn’t down yet.” 

“Here he comes,” said Georgia, as Stratford entered 
somewhat hurriedly and cast a hasty glance round the 
room ; “ but if you ever venture to ask him to interpret 
me, Dick, why, beware ! ” 

“I should never think of doing it in cold blood. It 
might be too much for his brain. What’s the matter, 
Stratford?” he asked, raising his voice. “You’re not late.” 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


405 


‘‘The Chief not down yet?” asked Stratford, looking 
round again and making sure that Sir Dugald and Lady 
Haigh were the only members of the party who were 
missing. It was the first time that the two invalids 
had been allowed to join the rest at dinner, and the 
servants were obviously unhappy at the delay. 

“ No,” said Fitz ; “ the poor old chap is so thin after 
his illness that Lady Haigh is making Chanda Lai pad 
his dress-clothes a hit to keep him from looking quite 
so like a scarecrow.” 

“I wish you would have the goodness to confine your 
jokes to other people, Anstruther, and not go sharpening 
your wit on the Chief,” said Stratford, irritably. “ Look 
here, all of you — there was something I particularly wanted 
to say when I got you altogether, and this is just the 
chance. I beg and entreat you all not to allude after 
to-day — even in private letters or in talking to friends — to 
the way in which I managed to get the treaty signed.” 

“Why, Stratford, there was nothing to be ashamed 
of!” cried Dick. “It was one of the finest things I 
ever heard of.” 

“ You don’t see what I am driving at. At present the 
Chief has got it into his head that the sudden change in 
the King’s attitude was entirely due to the discovery 
by independent means of Fath-ud- Din’s treachery, and 
the consequent promotion of Jahan Beg. He thinks that 
I happened on the spot exactly at the right moment and 
got the treaty signed without a bit of trouble, and I want 
him to go on thinking so.” 

“ But do you mean to say you don’t want him to know 
that it was all through you that the old fraud was un- 
masked, and that you went to the Palace for the sake 
of rescuing Miss Keeling, and at the risk of your life? 
What on earth is your reason?” 


406 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ I should have thought you would have seen it at once. 
I want the Chief to get the full credit for this piece of 
work.” 

“ But this is nonsense ! ” cried Dick. “ Why should the 
Chief get the credit for what you did t He is the last man 
in the world to wish to wear borrowed plumes.” 

“ Of course he is, and that^s the reason that I want 
no one beyond our immediate selves to know that they are 
borrowed. Lady Haigh honestly believes that he did all 
the work, and that I merely reaped the fruit, so that 
she won’t let out. Sir Dugald has never been properly 
appreciated at home, and it is hard on him to lose the 
reputation he deserves for the way he has managed this 
affair, which he will do if it once gets known that it was 
not he who got the treaty signed after all. He is an old 
man, and he will do no more work after this. His illness 
has left marks on him. You have noticed it. Miss Keeling, 
I am sure?” 

“ There is some loss of brain power,” said Georgia, 
hesitatingly, “ which may he only temporary. But I fear 
his official career is over.” 

‘‘You see that, then? Let him get his peerage and 
the credit of having made the treaty. After all, he did by 
far the greater part of the work.” 

“Only you came romping in at the finish,” said Fitz. 
“ But what about your own prospects, Mr Stratford ? ” 

“ They can look after themselves. I may mention that 
the Chief let out this morning that he intended to mention 
us all very honourably in his report, so that we shall none 
of us lose in the long-run.” 

“ It is splendid of you to leave Sir Dugald the credit in 
this way, Mr Stratford,” said Georgia ; “ and we shall all 
think far more highly of you than if you had claimed the 
honour for yourself.” 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


407 


“ But what about your archives — your official journal % ” 
asked Dick, who was still unconvinced. 

I wrote that entry myself. Hush, here comes the 
Chief!” 

And the conspiracy of silence was an accomplished fact, 
although Dick continued to argue the matter vainly with 
both Stratford and Georgia all the evening, as often as he 
could get either of them alone. They succeeded at last in 
reducing him to a condition of grumbling acquiescence, and 
during the journey of the next few days all the conspirators 
did their best to accustom themselves to the new view of 
what had happened, until they were almost ready to accept 
it as the true one. Strangely enough, however, they had 
left out of account an important element which ought to 
have entered into their calculations, and it was through 
this oversight that their deep-laid schemes failed eventually 
of success. The blow came suddenly on the last day of the 
march, when the officers at Fort Eahmat-Ullah, riding out 
to welcome the returning travellers, had met them on the 
frontier. The Mission was being escorted back to the Fort 
in triumph, and Sir Dugald, able now to mount his horse, 
was talking to the Commandant as they rode side by 
side. 

“ Your staff seem to have come uncommonly weH out of 
this business,” remarked the Commandant. “ Of course we 
expected great things from North, and we were not a bit 
astonished when he turned up with the treaty, after a three 
days’ solitary ride ; but that Foreign Office fellow of yours — 
Stratford his name is, isn’t it 1 — appears to have developed 
in a wholly unexpected direction.” 

“ My staff have all behaved extremely well, and I shall 
have great pleasure in representing the fact in the proper 
quarter.” 

“Oh, come, Haigh, it’s more than that — or do you 


408 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


include absolute heroism in the bond of your requirements ? 
It is not every civilian that would take his life in his hand 
in the way your man did, and have the nerve to carry 
through a palace revolution and secure the object of the 
Mission all at once. I can tell you that when we heard the 
story from Hicks, there wasn^t one of us but was simply 
yearning to have had Stratford’s chance, and to have made 
as good use of it as he did.” 

I wish I had scragged Hicks ! ” muttered Stratford, 
behind, to Dick ; but Sir Dugald’s face betrayed no 
astonishment. 

“ Then I suppose our friend Hicks is beforehand with us 
now in the matter of news, as he was a short time ago in 
reaching Kubbet-ul-Haj 1 ” 

“ You bet he is — as he would say himself. The story of 
your Mission is all over the world by this time, and Hicks 
and the proprietor of the ‘ Crier ’ are raking in the shekels 
like so much dust. Upon my word, it is rather rough on 
you. But for that illness of yours, you would have carried 
the whole thing through yourself, and now you have lost 
the biggest advertisement you were ever within an ace of 
getting. Stratford is the popular hero from end to end of 
the Empire, and no one else will have a look-in beside 
him.” 

“You would not wish me to rob Mr Stratford of the 
honour which is due to him 1 ” inquired Sir Dugald, raising 
his eyebrows. “ If I know him at all, he will owe Hicks 
just as much thanks for his advertisement as I should in his 
place, and that is — nothing. He is so touchy on the subject 
of his visit to the Palace that I have scarcely yet been able 
to mention it to him myself. Still, it is a little disappoint- 
ing to find that we have been forestalled in the announce- 
ment of our great coup. You agree with me, Mr Stratford?” 
and Sir Dugald turned partially round in his saddle, and cast 


VIS MEDICATRIX. 


409 


a side-glance at the guilty Stratford, who looked extremely 
unlike a popular hero at the moment. He muttered some- 
thing unintelligible in reply to his leader’s question, and Sir 
Dugald smiled and changed the subject as he rode on with 
the Commandant. 

In the bustle and confusion of arriving at the Fort, 
Stratford heard no more of his attempted deception until 
late that evening, when he and Fitz, who had been dining 
with the officers at mess, walked over to the verandah in 
front of the Haighs’ old quarters to say good-night. Sir 
Dugald had employed the interval in catechising Lady 
Haigh and Georgia, as well as in collecting stray pieces of 
information from Dick and Kustendjian, so that he was now 
well acquainted with the history of all that had passed on 
the eventful day when the treaty had been signed. 

“ Sit down, Stratford, and don’t be in such a hurry,” he 
said, as they came up the steps, divining Stratford’s evi- 
dent intention of seeking safety in flight to his own quar- 
ters as soon as the requisite farewells had been exchanged. 
^‘We may not have the chance of being together again 
without any strangers present. Do you know that you 
have been plotting all this time to play me a very shabby 
trick — to make a fool of me, in fact, in the eyes of every- 
body 1” 

‘‘Pray don’t think that I agree with your description of 
our aims, Sir Dugald, when I say that I can only wish they 
had succeeded.” 

“ An d left me at the mercy of our friend Hicks 1 Don’t 
you see that as soon as he gave his version of your proceed- 
ings, I should be suspected either of concealing the facts or 
of being ignorant of them ? I have no particular fancy for 
either alternative.” 

“Unfortunately, we had all left Hicks out of our 
calculations.” 


410 


PEACE WITH HONOUR. 


“ Most fortunately, if you will allow me to correct you, 
Hicks declines to be ignored in such an unceremonious 
fashion. I suppose you imply that if he had occurred to 
your memory you would have tried to square himi You 
ought to know by this time that there is no one on earth so 
incorruptible as the newspaper man who has a big sensation 
in charge. The wealth of India would not move him, if the 
condition of receiving it was the suppression of his ‘copy.* 
And what a fine story he could have made out of your eager 
attempts (instigated, without a doubt, by myself) to bribe 
him not to publish the true facts of the case ! The issue 
would have been simple ruin for both of us. Not that that 
is the worst of it. Since when, Mr Stratford, have you 
imagined me capable of trading upon another man’s 
reputation 1 ” 

“ Honestly, Sir Dugald, our only idea was to preserve for 
you the credit which we know you deserve, but which 
Hicks and the world are determined to award to the wrong 
man.” 

“My dear Stratford, I have no doubt as to the entire 
excellence of your intentions, although I can’t congratulate 
you on the steps you took to carry them out I cannot be 
too thankful that your Quixotic scheme has failed. Leav- 
ing out of sight all the other considerations, I have still a 
little pride left, and I can’t stand being indebted, even to 
my friends, for a reputation which doesn’t belong to me. I 
have had my day, and I am quite ready to walk off and 
leave the stage to the younger men.” 

“Ah, Sir Dugald,” said Stratford, earnestly, “none of 
the younger men can hope to do what you have done.” 

“ Stuff ! ” said Sir Dugald, but he could not help allowing 
a gleam of pleasure to be seen. “ You have all done your 
duty under very trying circumstances, and I am proud of 
you, gentlemen.” 


VIS MBDICATfiEL 


411 


‘'And we of you. Sir Dngald,” said Dick, finding his 
tongue suddenly. 

“ You are bringing home peace with honour, as you said 
once at Kubbet-ul-Haj,” said Stratford. 

“The Chief gets the peace, and Stratford the honour,” 
observed Fitz, sotto voce^ to Georgia. “ Do you call that a 
fair division or not, Miss Keeling 1 ” 


412 


EPILOGUR 

(Being part of a letter addressed by Mr Fitzgerald 
Anstruther, about a year after the return of the English 
Mission from Kubbet-ul-Haj, to Mrs North, M.D., British 
Eesidency, Iskandarbagh.) 

**...! have just come back from my visit to Sir 
Dugald and Lady Haigh at Inverconglish. The Chief is 
all right again, and looks quite bucolic in knickerbockers 
and a deerstalker — a regular Hyrant of his little fields,* 
indeed. I had promised myself the pleasure of seeing him 
in a kilt, but he says that his tenants are a serious-minded 
people, unaccustomed to laughter, and he is afraid the sight 
of him so arrayed might do them severe physical injury. 
He is a great power in the neighbourhood, and the people 
bring their disputes to him to settle instead of going to law, 
so that he is quite busy and happy, though he has not got 
his peerage. Lady Haigh, who directs the affairs (partic- 
ularly the love affairs) of the locality generally, told me 
something about Stratford that will amuse you and North. 
He is destined, so they say, to get a high appointment 
before long, and meanwhile he has devoted his leave to 
falling in love with a girl just out of the schoolroom, who 
is desperately frightened by his attentions, and won’t have 
a word to say to him. Lady Haigh says she is rather like 


EPILOGUE. 


413 


a lady whom Stratford knew long ago, and who died. She 
is a hero-worshipper, and has adored him from a distance 
since Hicks first made him known to the British public, 
but she doesn^t want him to come any closer. However, if 
old Stratford makes up his mind to stick to a thing, I fancy 
he is pretty sure to get it. By the bye, I met Hicks the 
other day. He was just off to Thracia again, drawn by the 
rumour of these new disturbances. He quite considers 
himself as one of us, and says that when we of the old 
Kubbet-ul-Haj gang meet next to celebrate the signing of 
the treaty, he will be there, if he has to come from the 
other side of the world in order to be present. . , ” 


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the annals of homely modern life. The hundreds of thousands 
who read that widely noticed book are doubtless anticipating 
the author’s second story of New England life. 

Abroad with the Jimmies. By Lilian bell, 

author of “ The Love Affairs of an Old Maid,” “ The Expa- 
triates,” etc. 

Library i2mo, cloth, gilt top, with a portrait frontis- 
piece $1.50 

This book, one of Lilian Bell’s best, is the witty account of 
a journey through Europe, filled with many amusing incidents 
and experiences. Although we are afforded vivid and inter- 
esting glimpses of Nordau, Tolstoi, and other personages of 
importance and note, not the least attractive figures in the 
book are those of the engaging Jimmies, the author’s travel- 
ling companions. 

Hope Loring. By Lilian Bell, author of “The 
Love Affairs of an Old Maid,” “ The Expatriates,” etc. 
Library 12 mo, cloth, gilt top, illustrated . .. . $1.50 

The latest and most important novel of this clever writer is 
based upon the experiences of a Southern girl in New York 
society. It is filled with keen and entertaining observation of 
the life of New York society, and will add not a little to the 
deserved reputation already enjoyed by Miss Bell. 


LIST OF NEW FICTION 


3 


The Mate of the Good Ship York. By w. 

Clark Russell, author of “ The Wreck of the Grosvenor,” 
etc., with a frontispiece from a drawing by W. H. Dunton. 

Library i2mo, cloth, gilt top $1.50 

W. Clark Russell, past master in his own province, is almost 
the last of the great sea romancers. This, his latest novel, is 
a story filled with the savor of the sea and the venturesome 
spirit of the old hardy merchant service. The story has all 
the vigor and interest that we are wont to look for in Mr. 
Russell’s sea novels, and will be eagerly welcomed by his wide 
circle of admirers. 

Asa Holmes or At the Cr6ss=roads. By 

Annie Fellows-Johnston, author of “The Little Colo- 
nel’s Holidays,” etc., with a frontispiece from a drawing 
by Ernest Fosbery. 

Large i6mo, cloth, gilt top $1.00 

The many readers of Mrs. Johnston’s charming stories will 
look forward with pleasure to her latest book. “ Asa Holmes ” 
is a sketch of country life and country humor, done with the 
simplicity and grace which mark all of Mrs. Johnston’s work, 
and touched with the sunny wisdom of the cheery old Cross- 
roads philosopher, Asa Holmes. 

The Cloistering of Ursula. By Clinton S col- 

lard, author of “A Man-at-Arms,” etc. Illustrated by 
H. C. Edwards. 

Library 1 2 mo, cloth, gilt top $1.50 

It is with much pleasure that the publishers are able to an- 
nounce another of Mr. Scollard’s delightful Italian romances. 
Italy in the heyday of all her splendid sins and terrible virtues 
is a fascinating field for any romancer, and it is a fascinating 
romance which is here unfolded — a story of deadly feud and 
secret craft, open hatred and hidden love. A strange cloister- 
ing is that of the charming Ursula, whose adventures the reader 
follows with breathless interest from the time when, all unwit- 
ting, she aids the enemy of her house to escape from the fatal 
banquet, to the time when she finds her claustral refuge in the 
heart of that enemy. 


4 


L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 


The Seigneur de Beaufoy. By Hamilton 

Drummond, author of “ The King’s Pawn,” etc. 

Library i2mo, cloth, gilt top, illustrated . . . $1.50 

These adventures of the proud and powerful Seigneur de 
Beaufoy throw a striking side light on the political and social 
condition of France during the time of Charles VII. and his 
crafty son„ Louis XL How Beaufoy ruled his wide domains, 
waned with his neighbors, succored the weak and humbled 
the powerful, opposed priest and abbot, made terms with 
dauphin and king, — all this is set forth with a purity of style 
and a dramatic force that stamp Mr. Drummond as one of the 
leading romancers of the day. 


The Yellow Rose. By Maurus J6kai, author of 
. “ Pretty Michal,” “ The Green Book,” etc. 

Library i2mo, cloth, gilt top $1.50 

“ A Sarga Rosza,” “ The Yellow Rose,” has been pro- 
nounced by the great critic Zoltan Beothy to be one of the 
abiding ornaments of the Hungarian national literature. The 
inexhaustible richness and fertility of Jdkai’s inventive imagina- 
tion is so well known to the American public that this story 
scarcely needs further introduction. 


The Prince of the Captivity. By Sydney C. 

Grier, author of “ The Warden of the Marches,” “ A 
Crowned Queen,” etc. 

Library i2mo, cloth, gilt top $1.50 

Mr. Grier’s latest novel, like several of its predecessors, is 
concerned with the interesting field of political intrigue in the 
Balkan states. The remarkable success which Mr. Grier’s 
novels have enjoyed in England makes certain the favorable 
reception on this side of the water of his latest work. 


LIST OF NEW FICTION 


5 


PAGE'S COMMONWEALTH SERffiS 

Literary growth in America has been of late years as rapid 
as its material and economical progress. The vast size of the 
country, the climatic and moral conditions of its different parts, 
and the separate political and social elements, have all tended 
to create distinct methods of literary expression in various sec- 
tions. In offering from time to time the books in the “ COM- 
MONWEALTH SERIES,” we shall select a novel or story 
descriptive of the methods of thought and life of that particu- 
lar section of the country which each author represents. The 
elegance of paper, press-work, and binding, and the lavish and 
artistic illustrations, as well as the convenient size, add not a 
little to the attractiveness of the volumes. 


Number 5. (iiimois) The Russells in Chi- 

CHgO. By Emily Wheaton. Illustrated with full-page 
drawings by F. C. Ransom, and numerous reproductions 
from original photographs. 

Cloth, large i6mo, gilt top ..... $1.25 
This entertaining story is the narrative of the experiences of 
two young people from Boston who take up their residence in 
the wilds by Lake Michigan. The characteristics of life in the 
great Western metropolis, as well as the foibles of the impec- 
cable Eastern critic, are touched with a gentle and amusing 
satire, as kindly as it is observant and keen. 

Even without the omen of success afforded in the previous 
numbers of this popular series, it is safe to predict a most 
favorable reception for this charming story. 


Number 6. (New York) Councils of Croesus. 

By Mary Knight Potter, author of “ Love in Art,” etc. 
Cloth, large i6mo, gilt top, illustrated . . . $1.25 

A clever and vivacious story of life in New York society 
circles. 




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Selections from 

L. C. Page and Company's 

List of Fiction 


■WORKS OF 

ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS 

Captain Ravenshaw ; or, the maid of 

Cheapside. (35th thousand.) A romance of Elizabethan 
London. Illustrations by Howard Pyle and other artists. ’ 

Library i2mo, cloth $1.50 

Not since the absorbing adventures of D’Artagnan have we 
had anything so good in the blended vein of romance and 
comedy. The beggar student, the rich goldsmith, the roisterer 
and the rake, the fop and the maid, are all here ; foremost 
among them. Captain, Ravenshaw himself, soldier of fortune 
and adventurer, who, after escapades of binding interest, 
finally wins a way to fame and to matrimony. The rescue of 
a maid from the designs of an unscrupulous father and rakish 
lord forums the principal and underlying theme, around which 
incidents group themselves with sufficient rapidity to hold one’s 
attention spellbound. 

Philip Winwood. (70th thousand.) A Sketch of 
the Domestic History of an American Captain in the War of 
Independence, embracing events that occurred between and 
during the years 1763 and 1785 in New York and London. 
Written by his Enemy in War, Herbert Russell, Lieutenant 
in the Loyalist Forces. Presented anew by Robert Neil- 
SON Stephens. Illustrated by E. W. D. Hamilton. 

Library i2mo, cloth . . . . . . $1.50 

“ One of the most stirring and remarkable romances that have 
been published in a long while, and its episodes, incidents, and 
actions are as interesting and agreeable as they are vivid and 
dramatic.” — Boston Times. 


2 


L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY’S 


An Enemy to the King. (40th thousand.) From 
the “ Recently Discovered Memoirs of the Sieur de la 
Tournoire.” Illustrated by H. De M. Young. 

Library i2mo, cloth $1.50 

An historical romance of the sixteenth century, describing 
the adventures of a young French nobleman at the Court of 
Henry III., and on the field with Henry of Navarre. • 

“ A stirring tale.’’ — Detroit Free Press. 

“ A royally strong piece of fiction.” — Boston Ideas. 

“ Interesting from the first to the last page.” — Brooklyn Eagle. 

“ Brilliant as a play ; it is equally brilliant as a romantic novel.” — 
Philadelphia Press. 

The Continental Dragoon : a romance of 
Philipse Manor House in 1778. (42d thousand.) Illus- 
trated by H. C. Edwards. 

Library i2mo, cloth ^1.50 

A stirring romance of the Revolution, the scene being laid 
in and around the old Philipse Manor House, near Yonkers, 
which at the time of the story was the central point of the so- 
called “ neutral territory ” between the two armies. 

The Road to Paris: . A Story of Adventure. 
(23d thousand.) Illustrated by H. C. Edwards. 

Library i2mo, cloth $1.50 

An historical romance of the i8th century, being an account 
of the life of an American gentleman adventurer of Jacobite 
ancestry, whose family early settled in the colony of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

A Gentleman Player : his adventures on a 
Secret Mission for Queen Elizabeth. (3Sth thou- 
sand.) Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. 

Library i2mo, cloth . . . . . . $1.50 

“A Gentleman Player” is a romance of the Elizabethan 
period. It relates the story of a young gentleman who, in the 
reign of Elizabeth, falls so low in his fortune that he joins 
Shakespeare’s company of players, and becomes a friend and 
prot^g^ of the great poet. 


LIST OF FICTION 


3 


WORKS OF 

CHARLES G. a ROBERTS 
The Heart of the Ancient Wood. 

Library i2mo, gilt top, decorative cover, illustrated . $1.50 

This book strikes a new note in literature. It is a realistic 
romance of the folk of the forest, — a romance of the alliance 
of peace between a pioneer’s daughter in the depths of the 
ancient wood and the wild beasts who felt her spell and 
became her friends. It is not fanciful, with talking beasts; 
nor is it merely an exquisite idyl of the beasts themselves. It 
is an actual romance in which the animal characters play their 
parts as naturally as do the human. 

The Forge in the Forest. Being the Narrative 

of the Acadian Ranger, Jean de Mer, Siegneur de Briart, 
and how he crossed the Black Abbd, and of his Adventures 
in a Strange Fellowship. Illustrated by Henry Sandham, 
R. C. A. 

Library i2mo, cloth, gilt top, deckle-edge paper . $1.50 

A romance of the convulsive period of the struggle between 
the French and English for the possession of North America. 
The story is one of pure love and heroic adventure, and deals 
with that fiery fringe 'of conflict that waved between Nova 
Scotia and New England. 

A Sister to Evangeline. Being the Story of 

Yvonne de Lamourie, and how she went into Exile with the 
Villagers of Grand Fr 6 . 

Library i2mo, cloth, deckle-edge paper, gilt top, 

illustrated $1.50 

This is a romance of the great expulsion of the Acadians 
which Longfellow first immortalized in “ Evangeline.” Swift 
action, fresh atmosphere, wholesome purity, deep passion, 
searching analysis, characterize this strong novel; and the 
tragic theme of the exile is relieved by the charm of the wilful 
demoiselle and the spirit of the courtly seigneur, who bring the 
manners of old France to the Acadian woods. 


4 


L. C. PAGE AA^D COMPANY'S 


IVorks of Charles G. D. Roberts (Continued) 

Earth’s Enigmas. 

Library 1 2mo, cloth, uncut edges . . . . $1.25 

This is the author’s first volume of stories and the one which 
discovered him as a fiction writer of advanced rank. The 
tales deal chiefly with those elemental problems of the mys- 
teries of life, — pain, the unknown, the strange kinship of man 
and beast in the struggle for existence, — the enigmas which 
occur chiefly to the primitive folk on the backwoods fringe of 
civilization, and they arrest attention for their sincerity, their 
freshness of first-hand knowledge, and their superior craft. 

By the Marshes of Minas. 

Library i2mo, cloth, gilt top, illustrated . . . $1.25 

This is a volume of romance of love and adventure in that 
picturesque period when Nova Scotia was passing from the 
French to the English regime, of which Professor Roberts is 
the acknowledged celebrant. Each tale is independent of the 
others, but the scenes are similar, and in several of them the 
evil “ Black Abb^,” well known from the author’s previous 
novels, again appears with his savages at his heels — but to be 
thwarted always by woman’s wit or soldier’s courage. 


WORKS OF 

MAURUS JOKAI 

MnnH-SSeh. Translated by P. F. Bicknell. With a 
portrait in photogravur-e of Dr. Jdkai. 

. Library i2mo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.50 

An absorbing story of life among a happy and primitive 
people hidden away in far Transylvania, whose peaceful life is 
never disturbed except by the inroads of their turbulent neigh- 
bors. The opening scenes are laid in Rome ; and the view of 
the corrupt, intriguing society there forms a picturesque con- 
trast to the scenes of pastoral simplicity and savage border 
warfare that succeed. 


LIST OF FICTION 


5 


Works of Maur us J6kai (Continued) 

The Baron’s Sons. Translated by P. F. Bicknell. 
With a portrait in photogravure of Dr. Jdkai. 

Library i2mo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.50 

This is an exceedingly interesting romance, the scene of 
which is laid at the courts of St Petersburg, Moscow, and 
Vienna, and in the armies of the Austrians and Hungarians. 
It follows the fortunes of three young Hungarian noblemen, 
whose careers are involved in the historical incidents of the 
time. 


Pretty Hichal : A Romance of Hungary. Au- 
thorized translation by R. Nisbet Bain. With a photo- 
gravure frontispiece of the great Magyar writer. 

Library i2mo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.50 

“ It is at once a spirited tale of ‘ border chivalry,’ a charming love 
story full of genuine poetry, and a graphic picture of life in a coun- 
try and at a period both equally new to English readers.” — Literary 
World. 


riidst the Wild Carpathians. Authorized 

translation by R. Nisbet Bain. With a frontispiece by J. 

W. Kennedy. 

Library i2mo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.25 

A thrilling historical Hungarian novel, in which the extraor- 
dinary dramatic and descriptive powers of the great Magyar 
writer have full play. As a picture of feudal life in Hungary 
it has never been surpassed for fidelity and vividness. 

The Corsair King. A tale of the Buccaneers. 

Large i6mo, cloth, decorative . . . . $1.00 

The Buccaneer adventures are very stirring. The love 
story is a thread of beauty and delicacy, woven in and out a 
few times in the coarser woof of this rough sea atmosphere. 
One leaves the book with the sense that he has actually been 
for awhile in the midst of a corsair’s life of the olden time, — 
felt its fascinations and found its retributions. 


6 


Z. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 


WORKS OF 

PAULINE BRADFORD MACKIE 
The Washingtonians. 

One vol., library i2mo, cloth, gilt top, deckle-edge 

paper, with a frontispiece by Philip R. Goodwin . I1.50 

Pauline Bradford Mackie’s new novel deals with Washing- 
ton official society in the early sixties. The plot is based upon 
the career (not long since ended) of a brilliant and well-known 
woman, who was at that time a power in official circles. 

riademoiselle de Berny : a story of valley 

Forge. With five full-page photogravures from drawings 
by Frank T. Merrill. 

One vol., library i2mo, cloth, gilt top . •. . $1.50 

“The charm of ‘Mademoiselle de Berny’ lies in its singular 
sweetness.” — Boston Herald. 

“One of the very few choice American historical stories.” — Bos- 
ton Transcript. 

Ye Lyttle Salem Haide: A Story of Witch- 
craft. With four full-page photogravures from drawings 
by E. W. D. Hamilton. 

One vol., library i2mo, cloth, gilt top . . . $1.50 

A tale of the days of the reign of superstition in New Eng- 
land, and of a brave “ lyttle maide,” of Salem Town, whose 
faith and hope and unyielding adherence to her word of 
honor form the basis of a most attractive story. A very con- 
vincing picture is drawn of Puritan life during the latter part 
of the seventeenth century. 

A Georgian Actress. 

Illustrated by E. W. D. Hamilton. 

One vol., library i2mo, cloth, gilt top . . . $1.50 

A historical novel dealing with the life of the early settlers 
in the Mohawk Valley, just before the Revolution. From the 
strange life in the wilderness the ambitious girl is transplanted 
to the gay life of the court of George III. and becomes famous 
as an actress in Garrick’s company. 












. APR 3'^ 1903^^ 




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